distillation

Everyday

1. Distillation is a way of making a liquid pure by heating it until it turns into vapour (gas), then cooling the vapour so it turns back into liquid and collecting it. tree →
2. A distillation is the most important part of something, kept after the rest is taken away. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons, distillation is a method of separating mixtures: salty water can be distilled to get pure water, because the water evaporates and condenses but the salt stays behind. It uses evaporation and condensation. Phrases: simple distillation, fractional distillation, distilled water.

Examples

• Distillation can turn sea water into drinking water. tree →
• In distillation, the water evaporates and then condenses. tree →
• The salt is left behind after distillation. tree →
• Distilled water is very pure. tree →
• We watched a distillation experiment in the science lab. tree →
• Fractional distillation separates crude oil into different fuels. tree →
• Her talk was a distillation of years of study. tree →

Note

Mostly uncountable. Verb: distil (British) or distill (American); the noun «distillation» is spelt with double l everywhere. Distillation is not the same as filtering: filtering removes solid bits, but it cannot remove salt dissolved in water.