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say it: MEK-uh-niz-uhm
mechanism is a noun meaning "the atomic process that occurs during a chemical reaction". It is pronounced /ˈmɛkəˌnɪzəm/ — MEK-uh-niz-uhm. It carries 5 recorded senses.
the atomic process that occurs during a chemical reaction
“he determined unique mechanisms for the photochemical reactions”
the technical aspects of doing something
“a mechanism of social control”
“mechanisms of communication”
“the mechanics of prose style”
a natural object resembling a machine in structure or function
“the mechanism of the ear”
“the mechanism of infection”
(philosophy) the philosophical theory that all phenomena can be explained in terms of physical or biological causes
philosophy
device consisting of a piece of machinery; has moving parts that perform some function
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for mechanism come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.