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van der Waals force

van der Waals force noun: the relatively weak attraction between neutral atoms and molecules arising from polarization induced in each particle by the presence of other particles.

Noun

van der Waals force (plural van der Waals forces)

  1. (in plural, often) The relatively weak attraction between neutral atoms and molecules arising from polarization induced in each particle by the presence of other particles.

Forms of van der Waals force

pluralvan der Waals forces

Origin of van der Waals force

From van der Waals + force. From Dutch van der Waals. from Johannes Diderik van der Waals, who first described them.

Questions about van der Waals force

What does van der Waals force mean?
Van der Waals force means the relatively weak attraction between neutral atoms and molecules arising from polarization induced in each particle by the presence of other particles.
What part of speech is van der Waals force?
Van der Waals force is a noun.
What is the plural of van der Waals force?
The plural of van der Waals force is van der Waals forces.

Words near van der Waals force in the dictionary

  1. Van der Valk
  2. van der Vegte
  3. van der Waals
  4. Van der Waals equation
  5. van der Waals equation of state
  6. van der Waals force
  7. van der Waals forces
  8. van der Waals gas
  9. van der Waals gases
  10. Van der Waals law
  11. van der Waals radius

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: van der Waals force (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: “van der Waals force.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/van_der_waals_force. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.