polarization

Etymology

From French polarisation Morphologically polarize + -ation

noun

1. the production or the condition of polarity
   1. (sociology) the grouping of opinions into two extremes
      Polarization is tearing at the seams of democracies around the world, from Brazil and India to Poland and Turkey. 2019-10-01, Thomas Carothers, Andrew O’Donohue, “How to Understand the Global Spread of Political Polarization”, in Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, archived from the original on 2023-02-14
   2. (physics) the production of polarized light; the direction in which the electric field of an electromagnetic wave points
   3. (chemistry, physics) the separation of positive and negative charges in a nucleus, atom, molecule or system