Definition of "colloid" []

• Chemistry A system in which finely divided particles, which are approximately 10 to 10,000 angstroms in size, are dispersed within a continuous medium in a manner that prevents them from being filtered easily or settled rapidly. (noun)
• Chemistry The particulate matter so dispersed. (noun)
• Physiology The gelatinous product of the thyroid gland, consisting mainly of thyroglobulin, which serves as the precursor and storage form of thyroid hormone. (noun)
• Pathology Gelatinous material resulting from colloid degeneration in diseased tissue. (noun)
• Of, relating to, containing, or having the nature of a colloid. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "When the secreting elements increase out of proportion to the stroma, numerous rounded or irregular spaces filled with a thick yellow colloid material are formed in the substance of the goitre -- _colloid goitre_."
• "Early work in colloid chemistry had also been carried out by Wolfgang Ostwald, son of the 1909 Laureate Wilhelm Ostwald, but this was not of a caliber earning him a Nobel Prize."
• "If the mass concentration of the colloid is known, it is easy to obtain the mass of the particles, and from this - assuming, for example, a spherical shape and normal specific gravity - the size can be calculated."