Con`den*sa"tion (?), n. [L.
condensatio: cf. F. condensation.]
1. The act or process of condensing or of
being condensed; the state of being condensed.
He [Goldsmith] was a great and perhaps an
unequaled master of the arts of selection and
condensation.
Macaulay.
2. (Physics) The act or process of
reducing, by depression of temperature or increase of pressure,
etc., to another and denser form, as gas to the condition of a
liquid or steam to water.
3. (Chem.) A rearrangement or
concentration of the different constituents of one or more
substances into a distinct and definite compound of greater
complexity and molecular weight, often resulting in an increase
of density, as the condensation of oxygen into ozone, or
of acetone into mesitylene.
Condensation product (Chem.), a
substance obtained by the polymerization of one substance, or by
the union of two or more, with or without separation of some
unimportant side products. -- Surface
condensation, the system of condensing steam by
contact with cold metallic surfaces, in distinction from
condensation by the injection of cold water.