Word Confusion: Precipitant vs Precipitate vs Precipitous

Plural for the noun: precipitants

Plural for the noun: precipitates
Gerund: precipitating

Third person present verb: precipitates
Past tense or past participle: precipitated
Present participle: precipitating

Hasty or impulsive

• Rash

Rushing or falling rapidly or without heed

Abrupt, unexpected, or sudden

Noun:
A cause of a particular action or event

• [Mainly Psychology] A cause or stimulus that precipitates a particular condition
• [Chemistry] A substance that causes the precipitation of a specified substance

• [Of an event or situation] Occurring suddenly or abruptly
• Marked by excessive haste
• Rash
• Overhasty
• Done or made without sufficient deliberation

Headlong

• Rushing headlong or rapidly onward

Noun:
[Chemistry] A substance separated from a solution ¹

A product resulting from a process, event, or course of action

Moisture condensed in the form of rain, snow, etc.

Verb, intransitive:
[Chemistry] To be separated from a solution as a solid ¹

[Meteorology] To fall from the air as a form of water, such as rain or snow

Verb, transitive:
[Chemistry] Cause (a substance) to be deposited in solid form from a solution ¹

• Cause (drops of moisture or particles of dust) to be deposited from the atmosphere or from a vapor or suspension

Cause (an event or situation, typically one that is bad or undesirable) to happen suddenly, unexpectedly, or prematurely ²

• Cause to move suddenly and with force
• [precipitate someone/something into] Send someone or something suddenly into a particular state or condition

• [Of a change to a worse situation or condition] Sudden and dramatic

[Of an action] Done suddenly and without careful consideration

“They leave their little lives Above the clouds, precipitant to earth.” – J. Philips

“Should he return, that troop so blithe and bold, Precipitant in fear would wing their flight.” – Pope

“The Commotions in Ireland were so sudden, and so violent, that it was hard at first either to discerne the rise, or apply a remedy to that precipitant Rebellion” (Eikon).

Noun:
The immediate precipitants of the conflict were a succession of undisciplined actions.

Depression may be a precipitant in many cases.

The professor used a protein precipitant.

“For young adults, loneliness and social isolation are major precipitants of suicide, experts say” (Brody).

She took a precipitate fall down the stairs.

There was a precipitate decline in cultural literacy.

She precipitated herself into a struggle.

The Russians made a precipitate retreat.

It was a precipitate decision.

He made a precipitate marriage.

The rebels wondered whether they had been rather precipitate in deposing the king.

Noun:
If an insoluble salt forms by the reaction of soluble substances in water and falls out of solution, we call it a precipitate” (Definition).

“The resulting solution contains Na+, Ag+, Cl-, and NO3-, but AgCl is not soluble in water. Since Ag+ is now in solution with Cl- the two will combine to form AgCl, and the AgCl will precipitate from solution” (Precipitation).

Snow and rain are precipitates that result in precipitation.

Verb, intransitive:
“This is the amount of water per year that precipitates and evaporates from six ocean basins and three seas” (Gray).

Mixing silver nitrate and sodium chloride in water will cause silver chloride to precipitate out of solution as a solid.

“Similar values were found in iron-sulfur compounds that had precipitated out” (Timmer).

Verb, transitive:
The incident precipitated a political crisis.

“He was like a man who had never known liberty and was all at once precipitated into it” (Caldwell).

Suddenly the ladder broke, precipitating them down into a heap.

They were precipitated into a conflict for which they were quite unprepared.

The cell proteins were then precipitated and washed in 10% trichloroacetic acid.

Excess moisture is precipitated as rain, fog, mist, or dew.

The end of the war led to a precipitous decline in exports.

Precipitous labor takes less than three hours after contractions first begin.

He ignored the precipitous slope of the mountain.

There was a precipitous decline in stock prices, which led to fears on Wall Street.

Be careful of the precipitous rapids of the upper river.

Chinese paintings frequently feature the country’s precipitous hills.

1. Early 16th century, from the Latin praecipitat- meaning thrown headlong, from the verb praecipitare, from praeceps, praecip(it)- meaning headlong, from prae (before) + caput (head).
2. The original sense of the verb was hurl down, send violently; hence cause to move rapidly, which gave rise to 1.

See precipitate.