Word.ws English Dictionary

corposant

UK/ˈkɔːpəzant/US/ˈkɔːɹpəˌsænt/

corposant noun: an electrical discharge accompanied by a corona of ionization in the surrounding atmosphere.

Noun

corposant (plural corposants)

  1. An electrical discharge accompanied by a corona of ionization in the surrounding atmosphere
    • I said the corpusants have mercy on us all; and I hope they will, still. But do they only have mercy on long faces?--have they no bowels for a laugh? […] I take that mast-head flame we saw for a sign of good luck; for those masts are rooted in a hold that is going to be chock a' block with...1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 498
    • If there was a sharp point nearby, electricity would stream from it in a luminous brush, a little corposant, and one could blow out candles with the outstreaming “electric wind,” or even get this to turn a little rotor on its pivot.2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

Synonyms of corposant

Forms of corposant

pluralcorposants
alternative formcomposant
alternative formcorpusant

Origin of corposant

Latin corpus (“body”) + sanctum (“holy”)

Questions about corposant

What does corposant mean?
Corposant means an electrical discharge accompanied by a corona of ionization in the surrounding atmosphere.
What part of speech is corposant?
Corposant is a noun.
How do you pronounce corposant?
Corposant is pronounced /ˈkɔːpəzant/ (UK).
What is the plural of corposant?
The plural of corposant is corposants.

Words near corposant in the dictionary

  1. corporization
  2. corporizations
  3. corporosities
  4. corporosity
  5. corpos
  6. corposant
  7. corposants
  8. corpotentorium
  9. Corprew
  10. Corprews
  11. corps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: corposant (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “corposant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/corposant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.