molten

See also: Mölten

English

Alternative forms

• ymolten (archaic, poetic)

Etymology

From Middle English molten, from Old English molten, ġemolten (“melted, molten”), from Proto-Germanic *multanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *meltaną (“to melt”). Cognate with Scots moltin, Swedish multen.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒltən/

  • Audio (Southern England); /ˈmɒltən/:

    (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈməʊltən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmoʊltən/
• Rhymes: -ɒltən, -əʊltən

Adjective

molten (comparative more molten, superlative most molten)

2. Melted, especially due to great heat

   molten metal, wax, rock

   • 2023 December 27, Mindy Weisberger, “Ancient bricks baked when Nebuchadnezzar II was king absorbed a power surge in Earth’s magnetic field”, in CNN‎:

     Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere — an invisible bubble of magnetism generated by the powerful churning of molten metals at Earth’s core.

3. Made from a melted substance. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
4. Glowing red-hot.

Usage notes

• In contemporary English, molten is no longer said of things that melt at comparatively low temperatures, as in molten ice. This is a fairly recent development, however.

Derived terms

• molten chocolate cake
• molten lava cake
• moltenly
• molten plastic
• nonmolten
• premolten
• remolten
• semimolten
• unmolten

Translations

melted

Bulgarian: разтопен (bg) (raztopen) Cornish: teudh Dutch: gesmolten (nl) Finnish: sula (fi) French: fondu (fr) m German: geschmolzen (de) Greek: αναλυτός (el) (analytós) Ingrian: sula Italian: fuso (it), liquefatto (it) Latin: fūsilis Norman: fondu Polish: stopiony m Portuguese: derretido (pt) m Romanian: topit (ro) Russian: распла́вленный (ru) m (rasplávlennyj) Spanish: derretido (es) Swedish: smält (sv)

made from molten substance

Bulgarian: лят (bg) (ljat), отлят (otljat)

glowing red-hot

French: incandescent (fr) Italian: incandescente (it) Spanish: incandescente (es)

Verb

molten

1. (archaic) past participle of melt

See also

• plastic

Anagrams

• Elmton, Melton, loment, melton, tolmen

Old English

Verb

molten

1. past participle of meltan