(astronomy) the particular appearance of a body's state of illumination (especially one of the recurring shapes of the part of Earth's moon that is illuminated by the sun) | maintaining something at the most favorable temperature for its development |
(physical chemistry) a distinct state of matter in a system; matter that is identical in chemical composition and physical state and separated from other material by the phase boundary | sitting on eggs so as to hatch them by the warmth of the body |
any distinct time period in a sequence of events | (pathology) the phase in the development of an infection between the time a pathogen enters the body and the time the first symptoms appear |
a particular point in the time of a cycle; measured from some arbitrary zero and expressed as an angle | |