Dictionary

distillation en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /dɪstɪˈlæɪʃən/ (Australia)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /dɪstɪˈleɪʃən/ (UK)
• (US) audio
• /ˌdɪstɪˈleɪʃən/ (Canada, US)

Etymology

From Middle English distillacioun, from Anglo-Norman distillacioun, from Latin distīllātiōnem, accusative of distīllātiō.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The act of falling in drops, or the act of pouring out in drops.
2. (countable, uncountable) That which falls in drops.
3. (countable, qualifier:chemical engineering, uncountable) The separation of more volatile parts of a substance from less volatile ones by evaporation and condensation. ▸ Purification through repeated or continuous distilling; rectification.
4. (countable, qualifier:chemical engineering, uncountable) The separation of more volatile parts of a substance from less volatile ones by evaporation and condensation. ▸ Separation of petroleum into specific hydrocarbon groups; fractionation.
5. (countable, uncountable) The substance extracted by distilling.
   • to be stopped in, like a strong distillation, with stinking / clothes that fretted in their own grease. c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], line 104:
   • Then, were not summer's distillation left, A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass […] 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 5”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
6. (countable, qualifier:machine learning, uncountable) A technique in which a neural network is trained on the outputs or behaviour of a more complex model in order to transfer selected knowledge and capabilities to a smaller, more focused, or more efficient model.
   • Anthropic says three Chinese firms used ‘distillation’ technique to extract information from its Claude chatbot[.] 2026 February 23, “US AI giant accuses Chinese rivals of mass data theft”, in The Guardian, sourced from Agence France-Presse, →ISSN:
   • Distillation is often used to train new systems. If a company takes data from proprietary technology, the practice may be legally problematic. But it is often allowed by open source technologies. 2025 January 29, Cade Metz, “OpenAI Says DeepSeek May Have Improperly Harvested Its Data”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Sarah Heck, Anthropic’s head of public policy, said in a social media post on Wednesday that “illicit, adversarial distillation is IP theft and industrial espionage that supports adversary military and intelligence capabilities.” 2026 July 25, Mike Isaac, Kate Conger, Ana Swanson, Meaghan Tobin, quoting Sarah Heck, “Silicon Valley Splits Over Closing the Borders to Chinese A.I.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
7. (countable, qualifier:machine learning, uncountable) A model produced by such a process.

Forms

Deriveds

freeze distillation · redistillation · membrane distillation · cryodistillation · destructive distillation · salt-effect distillation · dry distillation · distillation chaser · predistillation · bidistillation · codistillation · hydrodistillation · transmembrane distillation · global distillation · microdistillation · steam distillation · fractional distillation · vacuum distillation

Hyponyms

membrane distillation · vacuum distillation · dry distillation · steam distillation · salt-effect distillation · freeze distillation · fractional distillation · destructive distillation

Translations (58)

ka დისტილაცია (separation of a substance) · tr destile (substance once extracted) · tr destilat (substance once extracted) · cmn 蒸餾 /蒸馏 (separation of a substance) · ko 증류 (separation of a substance) · ro distilare (falling in drips (act)) · bg изкапване (falling in drips (act)) · no destillasjon (separation of a substance) · nl destillatie (separation of a substance) · vo steilat (substance once extracted) · vo steilot (substance once extracted) · pt gotejamento (falling in drips (act)) · pt destilação (separation of a substance) · de Destillat (substance once extracted) · ka რექტიფიკაცია (separation of a substance) · ru перего́нка (separation of a substance) · vo steilam (separation of a substance) · bg дестилация (separation of a substance) · fr distillation (separation of a substance) · fi pisarointi (falling in drops (thing)) · sv destillering (separation of a substance) · pt destilado (substance once extracted) · mi iheunga (separation of a substance) · ka გამოხდა (separation of a substance) · sv destillation (separation of a substance) · es destilación (separation of a substance) · el απόσταξη (separation of a substance) · bg дестилат (substance once extracted) · fa تقطیر (separation of a substance) · el απόσταξη (falling in drips (act)) · tl singawkintay (separation of a substance) · ja 蒸留 (separation of a substance) · ka გამონახადი (substance once extracted) · es destilado (substance once extracted) · nrf distillâtion (separation of a substance) · ca destil·lació (separation of a substance) · vo steil (separation of a substance) · fi pisarointi (falling in drips (act)) · nl distillaat (substance once extracted) · cs destilace (separation of a substance) · mi whakaturunga (falling in drops (thing)) · fi tisle (substance once extracted) · el απόσταγμα (substance once extracted) · fi tislaustuote (substance once extracted) · ms penyulingan (separation of a substance) · nl distillatie (separation of a substance) · ar تَقْطِير (separation of a substance) · ru дистилля́ция (separation of a substance) · fi tislaus (separation of a substance) · ka დისტილატი (substance once extracted) · pl destylacja (separation of a substance) · tr damıtık (substance once extracted) · ur تقطیر (separation of a substance) · mi whakaturuturunga (falling in drips (act)) · tr distilasyon (separation of a substance) · tr destilasyon (separation of a substance) · de Destillation (separation of a substance) · nl destillaat (substance once extracted)