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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

leaven.

Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈlɛv.ən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈlɛvn̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈlev.ən/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈlevn̩]Australia, New-Zealand

  1. Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.

    countable · uncountable

  2. Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable

  3. Chametz.

    Judaism · countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-us Proto-Indo-European *h₁léngʰusder. ▲ Proto-Italic *breɣʷisinflu.? Proto-Italic *leɣʷis Latin levis Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin levō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Italic *-mn̥ Latin -men Vulgar Latin *levāmender. Old French levainbor. Middle English levayn English leaven From Middle English levayn, borrowed from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin *levāmen, a noun based on Latin levō (“raise”).

verb/ˈlɛv.ən/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈlɛvn̩]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈlev.ən/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈlevn̩]Australia, New-Zealand

  1. To add a leavening agent.

    transitive
    Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking.

  2. To cause to rise by fermentation.

    transitive

  3. To temper an action, decision, attitude, characteristic, etc.

    figuratively · transitive

  4. To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.

    figuratively · transitive
    The comedian's jokes helped leaven the atmosphere during the serious meeting.
    Her optimism seemed to leaven the otherwise tense environment.

  5. To rise or become larger; to prove.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-us Proto-Indo-European *h₁léngʰusder. ▲ Proto-Italic *breɣʷisinflu.? Proto-Italic *leɣʷis Latin levis Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin levō Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Italic *-mn̥ Latin -men Vulgar Latin *levāmender. Old French levainbor. Middle English levayn English leaven From Middle English levayn, borrowed from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin *levāmen, a noun based on Latin levō (“raise”).

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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.