noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The property of dilating or expanding, especially by means of an increase in space between the component parts. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   The phenomenon of some substances whose viscosity increases with shear rate, or with pressure. countable, uncountable

Etymology

From dilate + -ancy or dilatant + -cy.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.