What does ALUM mean?

Definitions for ALUM
ˈæl əmalum

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word ALUM.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. alum, ammonia alum, ammonium alumnoun

    a white crystalline double sulfate of aluminum: the ammonium double sulfate of aluminum

  2. alum, potassium alum, potash alumnoun

    a white crystalline double sulfate of aluminum: the potassium double sulfate of aluminum

  3. alumnus, alumna, alum, graduate, gradnoun

    a person who has received a degree from a school (high school or college or university)

  4. alumnoun

    a double sulphate of aluminum and potassium that is used as an astringent (among other things)

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. ALUMnoun

    Etymology: alumen, Lat.

    A kind of mineral salt, of an acid taste, leaving in the mouth a sense of sweetness, accompanied with a considerable degree of astringency. The ancient naturalists allow of two sorts of alum, natural and factitious. The natural is found in the island of Milo, being a kind of whitish stone, very light, friable, and porous, and streaked with filaments resembling silver. The factitious alum is prepared in different manners, according to the different materials of which it is made. Hence arise red, Roman, and citron alums; also plumose, saccharine, and burnt alums. England, Italy, and Flanders, are the countries where alum is principally produced; and the English roche-alum is made from a bluish mineral stone, frequent in the hills of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Alum is used in medicine as an absorbent; but, being apt to excite vomiting, it is seldom prescribed inwardly. It is used outwardly in astringent lotions, and is an ingredient in several dentifrices and cosmeticks. It is a principal ingredient in dying and colouring; neither of which can be well performed without it. It serves to bind the colour upon the stuffs, and has the same uses there, that gum-water and glutinous oils have in painting. It also disposes stuffs to take the colour, and adds a degree of briskness and delicacy to it. This effect of alum seems to proceed from its styptick or astringent quality, by which it binds the finer parts of colours together, and prevents their exhaling. Hence also it preserves paper, that has been dipped in its water, from sinking when wrote upon. Saccharine alum bears a near resemblance to sugar, and is a composition of common alum, with rose-water and whites of eggs boiled together, to the consistence of a paste, and thus moulded at pleasure. As it cools, it grows hard as a stone, and is used as a cosmetick. Burnt alum is alum calcined over the fire, and thus rendered whiter, more light, and more easily pulverized. Plumose or plume alum is a sort of saline mineral stone, of various colours, most commonly white, bordering on green, resembling Venetian talc, except that, instead of scales, it rises in threads or fibres, resembling those of a feather; whence its name from pluma, a feather. Some will have this to be the lapis amianthus of the ancients. Ephraim Chambers.

    By long beating the white of an egg with a lump of alum, you may bring it, for the most part, into white curds. Boyle.

ChatGPT

  1. alum

    Alum refers to a type of chemical compound that usually contains an alkali metal (like potassium or sodium) or an alkaline earth metal (like aluminum). Alums are typically used in a variety of industrial processes, such as water purification, paper manufacturing, and tanning. They are generally characterized by their alumina or hydrated aluminum sulfate content. Alum can also come in the form of a double sulfate salt, crystalloid and soluble in water, that is often used as a mordant in dyeing.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Alumnoun

    a double sulphate formed of aluminium and some other element (esp. an alkali metal) or of aluminium. It has twenty-four molecules of water of crystallization

  2. Alumverb

    to steep in, or otherwise impregnate with, a solution of alum; to treat with alum

  3. Etymology: [OE. alum, alom, OF. alum, F. alun, fr. L. alumen alum.]

Wikidata

  1. Alum

    Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl(SO4)2·12H2O. More widely, alums are double sulphate salts, with the formula AM(SO4)2·12H2O, where A is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium and M is a trivalent metal ion such as aluminium or chromium.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Alum

    al′um, n. a mineral salt, the double sulphate of alumina and potash, used as a mordant in dyeing and for many purposes.—adj. Al′umish, having the character or taste of alum.—ns. Al′um-shale, or -slate, a slate consisting mainly of clay, iron pyrites, and coaly matter, from which alum is obtained. [L. alumen.]

Suggested Resources

  1. alum

    The alum symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the alum symbol and its characteristic.

  2. ALUM

    What does ALUM stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the ALUM acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

How to pronounce ALUM?

How to say ALUM in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of ALUM in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of ALUM in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2

Examples of ALUM in a Sentence

  1. Johnny Ludvigsson:

    Treatment with GAD-alum seems to be a promising, simple and safe way to preserve insulin production in around half of patients with type 1 diabetes, the ones who have the right type of HLA, this is why we are looking forward to carrying out larger studies, and we hope these will lead to a drug that can change the progress of type 1 diabetes.

  2. Rod Wheeler:

    Cydney Ireland said. The sprawling, 58,000-student main campus in downtown Columbus is one of the nation's largest. Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler, a former Washington DC homicide detective and an Ohio State University alum, said the school's police department is highly trained. People don’t need to panic.

  3. Joe Biden:

    Of course, President Harris is a proud Howard [University] alum.

  4. Jennifer Garner:

    In all honestly I have never wanted to do anything less, and I have never regretted saying yes to anything more than speaking to all of you, writing this speech has made me examine my life choices. It has made me gain five pounds... I have experienced an unhealthy level of self-loathing. I have even hated on Steve Carrell, Denison University alum [ actor ] Steve Carrell. I feel like Steve Carrell graduated 10 years before me, Steve Carrell should have had to do this first. I mean, Steve Carrell was in' The Office.'.

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