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leaven

noun · verb

Simple meaning

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

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

lehvuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈlɛvən

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

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

  2. figurative

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

  3. Chametz.

verb

  1. transitive

    To cause to rise by fermentation.

  2. To rise or become larger; to prove.

  3. transitivefiguratively

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

  4. transitivefiguratively

    To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.

  5. transitive

    To add a leavening agent.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Rare
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To cause to rise by fermentation.

Used this way, leaven is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use leaven

  • “His sermons benefited from a leavening of humor.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

like leavennew leavenleaven worth

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: any agent used to make dough rise

prove

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.