van’t Hoff (vänt hôf?, h?f?), Jacobus Henricus 1852-1911. Dutch chemist. He won a 1901 Nobel Prize for his work on the dynamics of solutions.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.van’t Hoff (Dutch v?nt ?h?f) n (Biography) Jacobus Hendricus (ja??ko?bys h?n?dri?k?s). 1852?1911, Dutch physical chemist: founded stereochemistry with his theory of the asymmetric carbon atom; the first to apply thermodynamics to chemical reactions: Nobel prize for chemistry 1901Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014van’t Hoff (v?nt ?h?f) n. Jacobus Hendricus, 1852?1911, Dutch chemist. Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.