What Is Condensation?
Science · Matter and Materials · Grades 4–5
Meaning at a glance
Condensation is when a gas cools and changes into a liquid. In the water cycle, water vapour cools and turns into tiny drops of liquid water.
Also searched as: condense, condensing, dew.
Understand it simply
The air around us always has some invisible water vapour in it. When that air touches something cold, or rises high up and cools, the water particles slow down and stick together as tiny drops of liquid water. That change from gas to liquid is condensation.
Condensation is the opposite of evaporation.
See it work
Take a cold bottle of water out of the fridge on a warm day. Drops soon appear on the outside. They did not leak through the bottle. Water vapour from the warm air touched the cold surface, cooled, and condensed.
High in the sky it is the same. Warm, moist air rises and cools. The vapour condenses into billions of tiny drops that make a cloud.
Avoid this confusion
The water on a cold glass did not come from inside the glass. It came from the air. The glass only cooled the air next to it.
Do not mix up the two changes: evaporation is liquid to gas; condensation is gas to liquid.
Try it yourself
Work these out first, then check your answers below.
Why does the outside of a cold drink glass get wet on a hot day?
Which change is the opposite of condensation?
What are clouds mostly made of?
Check your understanding
Show the answer to question 1
Answer: Water vapour in the air condenses on the cold glass.
The glass cools the air touching it. The water vapour in that air cools and changes into liquid drops.
Show the answer to question 2
Answer: Evaporation
Condensation changes gas to liquid. Evaporation changes liquid to gas.
Show the answer to question 3
Answer: Tiny drops of liquid water (and ice crystals when the air is very cold).
Water vapour cools high in the air and condenses into tiny drops that gather to make clouds.
Understand more with Courseversity
You now know what condensation means. Keep going with a full lesson, then explore the ideas that connect to it.
Learn
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- Condensation (Grade 4)
- Evaporation and condensation (Grade 5)
- Changes of state (Grade 6)
Practise
Practise with Learning Lab questions for the lesson Condensation (Grade 4), with an explanation after each answer.
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Sources and review
- USGS Water Science School: Condensation and the Water Cycle – Explains how water vapour becomes liquid water and forms clouds.
Written by: Courseversity editorial team (AI-assisted draft).
Review status: checked against the sources above. Educator review is pending, so please tell us if anything looks wrong.
Last updated: 27 October 2026.