Word.ws English Dictionary

foamite

foamite noun: a foamy substance formerly used for extinguishing fire, and in making fake snow for movies.

Noun (1)

foamite (uncountable)

  1. A foamy substance formerly used for extinguishing fire, and in making fake snow for movies.
    • The following changes relating to foamite fire extinguishers, fire pail, and system were made in the list of equipments approved […]1919, General Rules and Regulations Prescribed by the Board of Supervising Inspectors, page 12
    • Foamite Firefoam is fatal to fire - even blazing oil! Firefoam is a fire smothering, fire extinguishing foam which covers all burning objects like a blanket. It puts out fire quicker than other extinguishing agents,[…]1920, R. B. Foster, J.L. Newman, Petroleum Magazine, page 61

Noun (2) capitalized: Foamite

Foamite (uncountable)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of foamite.

Examples of foamite in a sentence

  • The tests with foamite extinguishers was conducted in the same manner as the previous test with carbon tetrachloride.1921, Arno Carl Fieldner, Gases Produced in the Use of Carbon Tetrachloride and Foamite Fire Extinguishers in Mines, page 4:
  • The foamite snow could therefore look soft and fluffy, like a whirling storm, or as wild as a raging blizzard.2013, Kristi McKim, Cinema as Weather: Stylistic Screens and Atmospheric Change, Routledge, →ISBN, page 142:
  • A new kind of snow, made from foamite, sugar, soap flakes and water, was produced for filming.2022 November 8, Orange Hippo!, A Little Book For Christmas: A Collection of Glad Tidings and Festive Cheer, Welbeck Publishing Group...

Forms of foamite

alternative formFoamite

Questions about foamite

What does foamite mean?
Foamite means a foamy substance formerly used for extinguishing fire, and in making fake snow for movies.
How do you use foamite in a sentence?
The tests with foamite extinguishers was conducted in the same manner as the previous test with carbon tetrachloride.
What part of speech is foamite?
Foamite is a noun.

Words near foamite in the dictionary

  1. foaming agents
  2. foaming at the mouth
  3. foaming up
  4. foamingly
  5. foamings
  6. foamite
  7. foamless
  8. foamlessly
  9. foamlike
  10. foams
  11. foams at the mouth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foamite (page history and authors); Foamite (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.

Last updated:

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