[f. next + -ITY. Cf. F. solubilité, It. solubilità, Sp. solubilidad.]
1. The quality or property of being soluble.
1677. Grew, Anat. Pl. (1682), 297. Even the changes of the weather will somewhat alter the Solubility of the Salts.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxxiii. § 23. Its peculiar fixedness and solubility in aqua regia.
1771. Phil. Trans., LXI. 216. The solubility of water in air.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exper. Phil., I. x. 399. The solubility of salt in water.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), p. xxiii. A compound of little solubility.
1844–57. G. Bird, Urin. Deposits (ed. 5), 207. Sometimes the crystals form very slowly, owing to their solubility in the precipitant.
1898. Rev. Brit. Pharm., 28. Solubilities in alcohol, ammonia solution, and ether are given.
2. Bot. Capability of easy separation into parts.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot., 165. Solubility arises from the presence of certain transverse contractions of a one-celled pericarpium, through which it finally separates into several closed portions.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 310. The separation taking place in these cases has been supposed to be effected by a process called solubility.
3. Capability of being solved or explained.
1882. in Annandale, Imperial Dict.
