text: The partition coefficient, abbreviated P, is defined as a particular ratio of the concentrations of a solute between the two solvents (a biphase of liquid phases), specifically for un-ionized solutes, and the logarithm of the ratio is thus log P. When one of the solvents is water and the other is a non-polar solvent, then the log P value is a measure of lipophilicity or hydrophobicity. The defined precedent is for the lipophilic and hydrophilic phase types to always be in the numerator and denominator respectively; for example, in a biphasic system of n-octanol (hereafter simply "octanol") and water:
  To a first approximation, the non-polar phase in such experiments is usually dominated by the un-ionized form of the solute, which is electrically neutral, though this may not be true for the aqueous phase. To measure the partition coefficient of ionizable solutes, the pH of the aqueous phase is adjusted such that the predominant form of the compound in solution is the un-ionized, or its measurement at another pH of interest requires consideration of all species, un-ionized and ionized (see following).
  A corresponding partition coefficient for ionizable compounds, abbreviated log P , is derived for cases where there are dominant ionized forms of the molecule, such that one must consider partition of all forms, ionized and un-ionized, between the two phases (as well as the interaction of the two equilibria, partition and ionization). M is used to indicate the number of ionized forms; for the -th form () the logarithm of the corresponding partition coefficient, , is defined in the same manner as for the un-ionized form. For instance, for an octanol–water partition, it is
  To distinguish between this and the standard, un-ionized, partition coefficient, the un-ionized is often assigned the symbol log P, such that the indexed  expression for ionized solutes becomes simply an extension of this, into the range of values .