Granulometric

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A technical phrase denoting the assessment of size distribution among particles in a material
2. Pertaining to evaluating the range and proportions of particle sizes within a substance
3. Concerning the analysis of how particles in a sample vary in size and quantity

Etymology: Granulometric is a technical coinage rather than a word that drifted through centuries of use. It was built in the 19th century from the Latin "granulum," a diminutive of "granum," meaning "grain" or "seed," combined with the Greek-derived suffix "-metric," from "metron," "measure." The result literally means "measuring grains," and it was formed on the same model as "geometric" and "electrometric," using the common scientific pattern of attaching "-metric" to a root to name a method of measurement. The word's usefulness comes from that construction. Engineers, geologists and soil scientists needed a single adjective for analyses that sort a sample into particle sizes and report what share falls in each range. A sieve test on sand, for instance, is a granulometric analysis, and the resulting curve is a granulometric curve. The term is most common in fields such as geology, soil science, mining and materials engineering, where it is used alongside the related noun "granulometry."