permeability

From French perméabilité, equivalent to permeable +‎ -ity.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpɝmi.əˈbɪlɪti/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpɜːmi.əˈbɪlɪti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: per‧me‧a‧bil‧ity

permeability (usually uncountable, plural permeabilities)

1. The property of being permeable.
2. The rate of flow of a fluid through a porous material.
   • 1997, Arthur L. Kohl, Richard B. Nielsen, Gas purification, page 536:

     The sulfite cake is usually blended with fly ash (and possibly lime) to produce a landfillable byproduct of low permeability.

   • 2008, Michael Bernard New, Wagner Cotroni Valenti, Freshwater Prawn Culture, page 33:

     McNamara et al. (1991) suggested that neurofactors located within the thoracic ganglion may alter the apparent ionic permeabilities of this freshwater prawn.

3. (geology) A measure of the ability of a rock to transmit fluids (such as oil or water).
4. (physics) A quantitative measure of the degree of magnetization of a material in the presence of an applied magnetic field (measured in newtons per ampere squared in SI units).

• impermeable
• nonpermeable
• permeameter

• conductivity
• penetrability
• porosity, porousness