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catalyst.

A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkæt.ɪ.lɪst/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæt.ə.lɪst/Australia, Canada, General-American[ˈkæɾ.ə.lɪst]Australia, Canada, General-American/ˈkɛt.ə.ləst/New-Zealand
  1. A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.

  2. Something that encourages progress or change.

    Economic development and integration are working as a catalyst for peace.
  3. An inciting incident that sets the successive conflict into motion.

  4. A catalytic converter.

  5. An object that facilitates the casting of a spell (such as a magic wand).

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English catalysis Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek -ῐστής (-ĭstḗs)bor. Latin -istader. Old French -istebor. Middle English -ist English -ist English catalyst From catalysis + -ist.

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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.