solution

From Old French solucion (French: solution), from Latin solūtiōnem, accusative singular of solūtiō, from the verb solvō.

• IPA^(key): /səˈl(j)uːʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːʃən

solution (countable and uncountable, plural solutions)

1. A homogeneous mixture, which may be liquid, gas or solid, formed by dissolving one or more substances.
2. An act, plan or other means, used or proposed, to solve a problem.
   • 1971, O. Phillip Hicks, “The Computer: Is It the Solution or the Problem?”, in ACM: Proceedings of 1971 Annual Conference, page 362:

     All too often, computer technology is treated as a solution in search of a problem. In fact, it is not uncommon for people working with computers to become critical of the problem because it doesn't seem to fit the solution they have generated.

3. The answer to a problem.
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 5, in The Hocussing of Cigarette‎:

     Then I had a good think on the subject of the hocussing of Cigarette, and I was reluctantly bound to admit that once again the man in the corner had found the only possible solution to the mystery.

4. (marketing) A product, service or suite thereof.
5. (law, Britain, archaic, rare) Satisfaction of a claim or debt.
   • 1681, Scotland. Court of Session, Lord Alexander Fraser Tytler Woodhouselee, William Maxwell Morison, editor, The decisions of the Court of Session, published 1802, page 2927:

     he was not obliged to repeat what he had received, in solution of a just debt

   • 1827, John Erskine, The Principles of the Law of Scotland, page 508:

     A disposition granted on a cessio bonorum is merely in farther security to the creditors, not in satisfaction or in solution of the debts.

   • 1879, “Conflict of Law — Promissory notes governed by law of place where made and payable”, in Albany Law Journal, volume 20:

     It is said that there is no violation of the law of this State in the simple act of paying money in solution of a promise to do so

6. The act of dissolving, especially of a solid by a fluid; dissolution.
7. (medicine, archaic) The crisis of a disease.

• (answer to a problem): problem
• (act of dissolving): precipitation

solution (third-person singular simple present solutions, present participle solutioning, simple past and past participle solutioned)

1. To treat with a solution.
   • 1898 August 6, Tavistock Chambers, “Correspondence: Some Interesting Tyre Experiences”, in The Autocar, volume 3, number 114, page 508:

     The reason for having the rubber so thick is that the cuts one is bound to get do not penetrate right through the rubber to the canvas or fabric, as I found it was really throught htis latter rotting that the trouble with the tyres occurred, whereas, when I had thick rubber, and particularly, be it noted, not one piece of rubber, but two pieces, namely, the rubber, cover proper and then a thick rubber band solutioned on top of this, I found from experience that, say, the rubber was half an inch thick, the cuts seemed to go much more easily through one piece of rubber than they did through two pieces of rubber, each a quarter of an inch thick, solutioned together.

   • 1903, Patents for Inventions: Abridgments of Specifications, page 23:

     The end of the casing 1 is flanged to receive a rubber tube 21 having and extension 22 to which the air chamber is solutioned or similarly fixed.

   • 2014, Peter Rudolph, Handbook of Crystal Growth: Bulk Crystal Growth, →ISBN, page 423:

     During the solutioning process, nucleation and growth of secondary phase γ' precipitates occur, in which the embryos are initially of spherical and then cubic shapes.

From Old French solucion, from Latin solūtiōnem, accusative singular of solūtiō, from the verb solvō.

• IPA^(key): /sɔ.ly.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

solution f (plural solutions)

1. solution
2. liquid mix

• solutionner

• “solution” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).