Sentence:  Then during washing , the greasy soil rolls back at the edges so that emulsified droplets can disengage themselves from the sorbed oil mass , with the aid of mechanical action , and enter the aqueous <WSD>phase</WSD> . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (physical chemistry) a distinct state of matter in a system; matter that is identical in chemical composition and physical state and separated from other material by the phase boundary