##  [Ostwald's Rule of Stages](/index.php/ostwalds-rule-stages) 

  ##  [Ostwald's Rule of Stages](https://health.quantumdictionary.io/ostwalds-rule-stages-0) 

  

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**Health & Life Sciences Dictionary**

 







 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Definition

A qualitative heuristic for phase transformations stating that, during nucleation-controlled crystallization, metastable polymorphs or phases that lower the immediate free‑energy barrier tend to appear before the most thermodynamically stable phase; applicability is conditional on nucleation kinetics, absence of strong templating or seeding, and sufficient mobility for subsequent transformation.