dissous

Dissous is the masculine singular past participle of the French verb dissoudre, which means to dissolve. It is used to indicate that a substance has entered into a solution or has become part of a dissolved state. In chemistry and everyday language, a substance can be described as dissous, or, with feminine or plural forms, as dissoute (feminine singular), dissous (masculine plural), or dissoutes (feminine plural). The form is also used in passive or adjectival constructions, as in Le sel est dissous dans l’eau.

Form and agreement: when used with the auxiliary être, as in a passive construction, the participle agrees in gender and number with the subject: un sel dissous, une substance dissoute, des sels dissous, des substances dissoutes. When used with the auxiliary avoir and a preceding direct object, the participle agrees with that object: j’ai dissous le sel; les sels que j’ai dissous; les substances que j’ai dissoutes.

Etymology and related terms: dissoudre derives from Latin dissolvere, with the prefix dis- indicating separation. The related noun dissolution and the adjective soluble are common in scientific vocabulary. The concept is central to discussions of solubility, concentration, and chemical reactions in solution.

Usage notes: in scientific French, dissoudre describes the act of making a solute enter into a solvent, while dissous or dissoute can describe the resulting dissolved state. The term is used across disciplines, including chemistry, biology, medicine, and cooking, whenever a substance is described as having been brought into solution.