Word.ws English Dictionary

leavening

leavening is the present participle and gerund of leaven.

Noun

leavening (plural leavenings)

  1. The process by which something is leavened.
    • For these lighter leavenings of the heavy dough of debate, members were in Sir Winston's debt.1956, Charlie Lewis Broad, Winston Churchill, Architect of Victory and of Peace, page 623
  2. Synonym of leavening agent.
    Synonyms:
    leavening agent

Meaning of leaven

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]...
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
    • The comedian's jokes helped leaven the atmosphere during the serious meeting.
  5. To rise or become larger; to prove.

See all 8 meanings of leaven

Adjective

leavening (not comparable)

  1. Making light by aeration.

Synonyms of leavening

Forms of leavening

pluralleavenings

Phrases with leavening

Questions about leavening

What does leavening mean?
Leavening means the process by which something is leavened.
What is leavening the present participle and gerund of?
Leavening is the present participle and gerund of leaven.
What part of speech is leavening?
Leavening can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of leavening?
The plural of leavening is leavenings.

Words near leavening in the dictionary

  1. leavened
  2. leavener
  3. leaveners
  4. leavenest
  5. leaveneth
  6. leavening
  7. leavening agent
  8. leavening agents
  9. leavenings
  10. leavenless
  11. leavenous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leavening (page history and authors); leaven (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-leavening.wav.

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