solution
Pluralsolutions
Pluralsolutions
- 1An answer to a problem, puzzle, or question, or a way of dealing with a difficulty.
After days of debate, the team agreed on a solution to the budget shortfall.
Her elegant solution surprised everyone who had struggled with the puzzle.
UsageUsually a solution to a problem or puzzle. You find, come up with or offer a solution.
Note
In Baroness Orczy's "The Hocussing of Cigarette," the man in the corner reaches "the only possible solution to the mystery." Its standing opposite is problem. Charles Hugh Smith turns that pairing against states and empires that are "no longer the solution, they are the problem."
- 2A product, service, or suite of them (especially software) offered to meet a need.
The vendor pitched their new software solution to the board.
Startups often market a single app as a complete solution for small businesses.
UsageUsually after another noun: a software solution, a storage solution. Plain writing often names the product instead.
Similarproduct, package, platform, system
Note
Marketing's word for what is for sale. Calling a product a solution frames it by the need it promises to meet rather than by what it is. The word grew out of the problem-solving meaning and attaches freely to other nouns: software solution, payment solution, storage solution.
- 3A liquid, gas, or solid with one or more substances dissolved evenly throughout it.
The chemist prepared a saline solution for the experiment.
Different solutions were tested to see which dissolved the powder fastest.
UsageOften a saline solution, a cleaning solution, or a solution of salt in water.
Note
A chemist's word with two named parts: the solvent, which does the dissolving, and the solute, which is dissolved. The result is uniform throughout, a single phase whether liquid, gaseous or solid, with the solute spread at the molecular or ionic level. Latin solūtiō comes from solvō, the verb behind solve, which is why one English word covers both dissolving a salt and answering a puzzle.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- A solution contains a solvent, the dissolving medium, and a solute, the dissolved substance. en.wikipedia.org
- A solution is uniform throughout. openstax.org
- Solutions are homogeneous phases and can be liquid, gaseous, or solid. eps.mcgill.ca
- The dissolved material is dispersed at molecular or ionic scale. openstax.org
- Latin solūtiō derives from solvō. en.wiktionary.org
- English solve derives from Latin solvō. en.wiktionary.org
- The shared Latin root has both solving and dissolving meanings, supporting the connection between the English senses. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4The process occurring when one substance dissolves in another, particularly when a fluid dissolves a solid.
The solution of the salt was complete within minutes of stirring.
Heating the liquid accelerated the solution of the crystals.
Similardissolution
Oppositeprecipitation
Note
This is the process rather than the product: the chemist's mixture is what you have once this kind of solution has happened. In The Loves of the Plants (1789), Erasmus Darwin writes of "the solution of the snows" to mean their melting, a looser use than chemistry now allows. Dissolution is the close synonym. The opposite is precipitation, where the solid comes back out.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Dissolving produces the mixture called a solution. monash.edu
- Erasmus Darwin wrote The Loves of the Plants, first published in 1789. romantic-circles.org
- Darwin uses the exact phrase “the solution of the snows” in the work, referring to melting snow. romantic-circles.org
- Melting and dissolving are distinguished in modern science. monash.edu
- Dissolution means dissolving or going into solution. en.wiktionary.org
- Precipitation reverses the dissolution of a solid by forming solid material from solution. ch302.cm.utexas.edu
- 5The crisis or decisive turning point of a disease.
Note
This was a physician's word for the decisive turning point of an illness, when it resolved either toward recovery or toward death. It belongs to historical medical writing, and a modern reader would say crisis or turning point instead.
- 6The satisfaction or full discharge of a claim or debt.
he was not obliged to repeat what he had received, in solution of a just debt
1681, Scotland. Court of Session, The decisions of the Court of SessionIt 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
1879, “Conflict of Law — Promissory notes governed by law of place where made and payable”, in Albany Law JournalNote
This legal sense is at home in Scots law, where payment is made "in solution of a just debt," as a Court of Session case of 1681 puts it. The fixed phrase is in solution of. John Erskine's The Principles of the Law of Scotland sets it beside in satisfaction of. The sense is archaic and rare even in legal writing. Modern usage says payment, discharge or satisfaction.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- The debt-payment sense is attested in Scots law. en.wiktionary.org
- A Court of Session case dated 1681 contains the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
- The quotation reads “in solution of a just debt.” en.wiktionary.org
- The legal expression is “in solution of.” en.wiktionary.org
- John Erskine's The Principles of the Law of Scotland places “in satisfaction” beside “in solution of.” en.wiktionary.org
- Erskine's text juxtaposes the two expressions. en.wiktionary.org
- 7To treat something with a solution.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
It came through Middle English solucioun and Old French solucion from Latin solūtiōnem, the accusative of solūtiō, formed from the verb solvō: the same root behind "solve."
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Solution came through Middle English solucioun and Old French solucion from Latin solūtiōnem. en.wiktionary.org
- Solūtiōnem is the accusative of solūtiō. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin solūtiō was formed from solvō. en.wiktionary.org
- Solve also derives from Latin solvō. en.wiktionary.org