Origin: Greek prefix thermo-
Thermoplastic has 4 different meanings across 2 categories:
a material that softens when heated and hardens again when cooled
"The recycling plant uses a thermoplastic process to melt down old bottles so they can be reshaped into new containers."
A plastic with this property.
"The recycling plant sorts the thermoplastic bottles from those made of rigid polystyrene because only the former can be melted and reshaped into new containers."
having the property of softening or fusing when heated and of hardening and becoming rigid again when cooled
"thermoplastic materials can be remelted and cooled time after time without undergoing any appreciable chemical change"
softening when heated and hardening when cooled, and thus able to be moulded
"The recycling plant processes old plastic bottles by melting them into thermoplastics that can be reshaped into new containers."