noun
- the quality or state of being unable to be reversed, undone, or returned to a previous condition
- in thermodynamics, the property of a process that cannot spontaneously return to its initial state without external work
Usage: often used in scientific, philosophical, and everyday contexts
Usage: technical; physics and chemistry
Examples
- The irreversibility of aging is a fact of human life.
- Once you delete the file permanently, the irreversibility of the action means it cannot be recovered.
- The irreversibility of certain chemical reactions makes them useful in industrial processes.
- Climate scientists warn about the irreversibility of some environmental damage.
- The irreversibility of time is a central theme in physics and philosophy.
- She understood the irreversibility of her decision to move abroad.