scattering

A small quantity of something being dispersed (at random points).

Noun

  1. A small quantity of something being dispersed (at random points).
    • There will be a scattering of showers, with heavy rain in places.
    • Only a light scattering of flaws sticks out. - 1976 April 3, Don Shewey, “Pass Judgment, Go To Woolf”, in Gay Community News, page 15:
    • There was something distinctly low-key, even wilfully alienating about the band’s performance. A scattering of OK Computer tracks were interspersed with more abstract latterday material – the clatter of 15 Step and...
  2. The total number of votes awarded to nonmajor or unlisted candidates.
  3. The process whereby a beam of waves or particles is dispersed by collisions or similar interactions.

Forms

scatterings

Hypernyms

light-scattering

Derived

autoscattering backscattering Bragg scattering Compton scattering deep scattering layer last scattering surface light-scattering photometry Mie scattering Møller scattering neutron scattering overscattering Raman scattering Rayleigh scattering rescattering Rutherford scattering scattering function superscattering Tyndall scattering Umklapp scattering upscattering urban scattering

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of scatter