heat death

American  

noun

Thermodynamics.

1. entropy3

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heat death British  

noun

1. thermodynamics the condition of any closed system when its total entropy is a maximum and it has no available energy. If the universe is a closed system, it should eventually reach this state

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heat death Scientific  

1. The eventual dispersion of all of the energy within a physical system to a completely uniform distribution of heat energy, that is, to maximum entropy. Heat death for all macroscopic physical systems, including the universe, is predicted by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

2. See more at entropy thermodynamics

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Etymology

Origin of heat death

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Despite its name, the so-called heat death would actually be slow and cold.

From BBC • Oct. 31, 2024

Suddenly, people understood the threat environment to include two doomsday scenarios based on solid science: the heat death of the universe and global thermonuclear fallout.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2023

No other major metropolitan area in the United States has reported such high heat death figures or spends so much time tracking and studying them.

From Washington Times • Sep. 29, 2023

The second law implies that the universe will inevitably lapse into heat death, in which everything, everywhere, is exactly the same temperature, near absolute zero, and nothing ever happens.

From Scientific American • Jun. 16, 2021

Which will be our fate: big crunch or heat death?

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife