alkali

/ˈæl.kəˌlaɪ/

alkali noun: 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.

Noun

alkali (countable and uncountable, plural alkalis or alkalies)

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.
- Alkalies may be defined as bodies which combine with acids so as to impair or neutralize their activity, and produce what are called salts. They are distinguished by properties the reverse of acids, and the two classes are generally looked upon as antagonist substances.1846, editorial staff, “CHEMISTRY”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 2, Issue 13, page 102
(US, Western) Soluble mineral matter, other than common salt, contained in soils of natural waters.

alkali meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

alkali in Hindi

alkali: क्षार kṣār, छार chār

alkali in Tamil

காரம், காரப்பொருள்

alkali in Urdu

القَلی, الکلی, اساس, تیزاب کا اُلٹ, ہائیڈوآکسائڈ

alkali in Bengali

alkali: ক্ষার khar

More languagesFewer languages

alkali in Telugu: క్షారము kṣāramu
alkali in Malayalam: ക്ഷാരം
alkali in Kannada: ಹುಳಿಕಳೆಯ, ಕಾರ, ಕ್ಷಾರ
alkali in Odia: କ୍ଷାର kṣāra
alkali in Arabic: قَلَوِيّ qalawiyy
alkali in Malay: alkali
alkali in Indonesian: alkali
alkali in Persian: قلیا qaliyâ, شخار šaxâr
alkali in Thai: ด่าง dàang
alkali in Vietnamese: kiềm

Examples of alkali in a sentence

ABS materials are however susceptible to chemical attacks by chlorinated solvents, esters, ketines, acids and alkalis.
Alkali soils are also pedocals, with a salt content high enough to kill plants.
The plant is drought tolerant and winter hardy, but is less tolerant of alkali soils.

All 13 example sentences with alkali

Synonyms of alkali

base

Antonyms

acid

Forms of alkali

plural	alkalis
plural	alkalies

Plural of alkali: alkalis or alkalies

Origin of alkali

From French alcali, from Medieval Latin alcali, ultimately from Arabic اَلْقِلْي (al-qily, “alkali, ashes (in reference to ashes of the saltwort)”), related to قَلَى (qalā, “to roast in a pan, fry”).

Phrases with alkali

Questions about alkali

What does alkali mean?: Alkali means 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.
What is alkali in Hindi?: Alkali in Hindi is क्षार (kṣār), छार (chār). See Alkali meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is alkali?: Alkali is a noun.
How do you pronounce alkali?: Alkali is pronounced /ˈæl.kəˌlaɪ/.
What is the plural of alkali?: The plural of alkali is alkalis.

Words near alkali in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: alkali (page history and authors); क्षार (Hindi) (page history and authors); alkali (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); alkali (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ক্ষার (Bengali) (page history and authors); alkali (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); alkali (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Alkali.wav.

Cite this entry: “alkali.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alkali. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.