Word.ws English Dictionary

leaven

UK/ˈlɛv.ən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈlev.ən/

leaven noun: any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.

Noun

leaven (countable and uncountable, plural leavens)

  1. Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
  2. (figuratively) Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change.
    • Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 8:15
    • On the far side was reflected a single red and meteoric cloud, which had treasured one last crimson ray from the sunset, or perhaps nursed within it the fiery leaven.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 299
  3. (Judaism) Chametz.
    • On the fourteenth day of Nisan men search for leaven by candlelight.1878, “On The Passover”, in Joseph Barclay, transl., The Talmud, page 95

Verb

leaven (third-person singular simple present leavens, present participle leavening, simple past and past participle leavened)

  1. (transitive) To add a leavening agent.
    • Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking.
  2. (transitive) To cause to rise by fermentation.
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To temper an action, decision, attitude, characteristic, etc.
    • Duke. No more euasion:
      We haue with a leauen'd, and prepared choice
      Proceeded to you; therefore take your honors:[...]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • “A tinge of Jewish blood is not a bad thing. It leavens the”—she looked at him—“stolid stupidity of the ordinary Englishman.”1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 125
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
    • 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.

leaven meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

leaven in Hindi

leaven, yeast
ख़मीर xamīr

leaven in Urdu

leaven, yeast
خمیر xamīr

leaven in Malayalam

മാവ് പുളിപ്പിക്കാൻ ചേർക്കുന്ന പദാർത്ഥം, പുളിച്ചമാവ്, യീസ്റ്റ്, സംക്ഷോഭകാരണം

leaven in Kannada

ಹುದುಗು ಹಿಟ್ಟು
More languagesFewer languages
leaven in Punjabi
ਖਮੀਰ khamīr
leaven in Gujarati
ખમીર khamīr
leaven in Tagalog
lebadura
leaven in Arabic
خَمِيرَة ḵamīra
leaven in Malay
bahan penaik
leaven in Persian
مایه mâye, برازده barāzde, وراوردن varâvardan

Examples of leaven in a sentence

  • American muffins are chemically leavened, enriched, semi-sweet quickbreads baked in individual portions.
  • Dawkins’ book is, oddly, much more embittered and deeply emotional, although leavened by his effervescent wit.
  • It consisted of a thick white porridge leavened with yeast and eaten together with a boiled potato.

All 11 example sentences with leaven

Synonyms of leaven

Forms of leaven

Noun
pluralleavens
Verb
third-person singular presentleavens
present participleleavening
past participleleavened
pastleavened
alternative formleven

Origin of leaven

From Middle English levayn, borrowed from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin *levāmen, a noun based on Latin levō (“raise”).

Words formed from leaven

Words that rhyme with leaven

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about leaven

What does leaven mean?
Leaven means any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
What is leaven in Hindi?
Leaven in Hindi is ख़मीर (xamīr). See Leaven meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is leaven?
Leaven can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce leaven?
Leaven is pronounced /ˈlɛv.ən/ (UK).
What is the plural of leaven?
The plural of leaven is leavens.

Words near leaven in the dictionary

  1. leavelets
  2. Leavell
  3. Leavells
  4. leavelooker
  5. leavelookers
  6. leaven
  7. leavened
  8. leavener
  9. leaveners
  10. leavenest
  11. leaveneth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leaven (page history and authors); ख़मीर (Hindi) (page history and authors); خمیر (Urdu) (page history and authors); leaven (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); leaven (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖਮੀਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ખમીર (Gujarati) (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.

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