alum.
An astringent salt, usually occurring in the form of pale crystals, much used in the dyeing and tanning trade and in certain medicines, and now understood to be a double sulphate of potassium and aluminium (K₂SO₄·Al₂(SO₄)₃·24H₂O).
Meaning & usage
An astringent salt, usually occurring in the form of pale crystals, much used in the dyeing and tanning trade and in certain medicines, and now understood to be a double sulphate of potassium and aluminium (K₂SO₄·Al₂(SO₄)₃·24H₂O).
Any similar double sulphate in which either or both of the potassium and aluminium is wholly or partly replaced by other univalent or tervalent cations.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut- Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Italic *-mn̥ Latin -men Latin alūmen Anglo-Norman alum, alunbor. Middle English alym, alyme, alum English alum From Middle English alum, alym, alyme, from Anglo-Norman alum, alun, from Latin alūmen.
To steep in, or otherwise impregnate with, a solution of alum; to treat with alum.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut- Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Italic *-mn̥ Latin -men Latin alūmen Anglo-Norman alum, alunbor. Middle English alym, alyme, alum English alum From Middle English alum, alym, alyme, from Anglo-Norman alum, alun, from Latin alūmen.
A past attendee or graduate (of any gender) of a college, university or other educational institution.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-o-mh₁no- Proto-Italic *alomanos Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-mno- Latin alumnuslbor. English alumnus, alumnaclip. English alum Clipping of alumnus and alumna (> alumn- > alum), by the removal of the originally Latin gender-specific nominative singular case endings -us (masculine) and -a (feminine).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.