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# steam

«steam» in Mova's school dictionary: **the hot white mist that rises from boiling water** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (steam, uncountable); verb (steam, steams, steamed, steaming)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Steam is the hot white mist that rises from boiling water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#m1)

2) In science, steam is water as a gas (water vapour), made when water is heated to 100 °C. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#m2)

3) To steam means to give off steam: the soup is steaming. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#m3)

4) To steam food means to cook it over boiling water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#m4)

5) Steam is the power from steam that drove old trains and engines. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In science steam shows a change of state: liquid water boils and turns into gas; when steam touches a cold window it condenses back into water drops. In safety lessons steam is very hot and can burn: keep your face and hands away from kettles and pans, and open lids away from you. In history, steam engines powered trains and factories. Phrases: let off steam (to release energy or anger), run out of steam (to get tired), full steam ahead, steam train.

### examples

- Steam rose from the kettle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x1)
- Keep your hand away from the steam; it can burn you. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x2)
- Water turns into steam when it boils. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x3)
- The bathroom mirror was covered in drops after the steam from the shower. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x4)
- Mum steamed the broccoli. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x5)
- We rode on an old steam train. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x6)
- The children let off steam in the playground. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x7)
- By the end of the race, I ran out of steam. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/#x8)

### note

Uncountable: some steam (not «a steam»). Strictly, pure water vapour is invisible; the white cloud we call steam is tiny drops of water that have already cooled a little. Steam burns can be worse than hot water burns.

### In the corpora

- [Steam can burn worse than boiling water, because it gives out extra heat as it turns back into water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/4-solids-liquids-and-gases/14/)
- [Distillation is boiling a liquid and cooling the steam back to liquid; the drops are pure water, and the salt stays behind.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/12/)
- [Popcorn pops because water inside each kernel turns to steam until the hard shell bursts; dried-out kernels pop badly.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/10-cooking-is-chemistry/9/)
- [Water puts out fires mainly by cooling, because it soaks up a lot of heat as it turns to steam.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/12-fire-what-it-needs/15/)
- [Not all bread needs yeast: pitta and tortillas are flat, and pitta puffs up only because water inside turns to steam.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/21-bread-rising-yeast-at-work/5/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «steam» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/steam/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.