alkali
noun
Simple meaning
Any of different water-soluble compounds capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
alkuhlySay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈælkəlaɪ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
chemistry
Any of various water-soluble compounds capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water
chemistry
One of a class of caustic bases, such as soda, soda ash, caustic soda, potash, ammonia, and lithia, whose distinguishing characteristics are dissolving in alcohol and water, uniting with oils and fats to form soap, neutralizing and forming salts with acids, turning to brown several vegetable yellows, and changing reddened litmus to blue.
Western US
Soluble mineral matter, other than common salt, contained in soils of natural waters.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Any of various water-soluble compounds capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water
Used this way, alkali is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- base , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Any of the monovalent metals of group I of the periodic table (lithium or sodium or potassium or rubidium or cesium or francium).
Poisoning resulting from the ingestion of an alkali compound (as lye or ammonia).
A common solitary bee important for pollinating alfalfa in the western United States.
Plant of western North America having grasslike leaves and greenish-white flowers.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Relating to or containing an alkali.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: any of various water-soluble compounds capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water
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