Word.ws English Dictionary

mordant

Syllables: mord·ant/ˈmɔːdn̩t/US/ˈmoɹd(ə)nt/

mordant adjective: having or showing a sharp or critical quality.

Adjective

mordant (comparative more mordant, superlative most mordant)

  1. Having or showing a sharp or critical quality.
  2. Serving to fix a dye to a fiber.

Noun

mordant (countable and uncountable, plural mordants)

  1. Any substance used to facilitate the fixing of a dye to a fibre; usually a metallic compound which reacts with the dye using chelation.
    • In dyeing two mediums are required, the colouring matter and the mordant which fixes the dye in the wool.1964, L.F. Salzman, English Industries of the Middle Ages, page 208
  2. Any corrosive substance used in etching.
    Synonyms:
    etchant
  3. A glutinous size used as a ground for gilding, to make the gold leaf adhere.

Verb

mordant (third-person singular simple present mordants, present participle mordanting, simple past and past participle mordanted)

  1. (transitive) To subject to the action of, or imbue with, a mordant.
    • Mordant these goods for dyeing.

mordant meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

mordant in Tamil

நிறங்கௌவி, நிறம் ஊன்றி, நிறம் நிறுத்தி, அரிகாரம், பூச்சிப்பசை, சாயம் ஊன்றி

mordant in Urdu

چبھتا ہوا, دلدوز, جلانے والا, کاٹنے والا, سوزش پیدا کرنے والا, تلخ

mordant in Malayalam

trenchant, caustic, biting
രൂക്ഷമായ, ഉഗ്രമായ, എരിവുള്ള, പൊള്ളിക്കുന്ന, കഠിനം, ക്രൂരം

mordant in Kannada

ತೀಕ್ಷ್ಣವಾದ, ಚುಚ್ಚುವ, ಕಟುವಾದ, ಮರ್ಮಭೇದಕ, ಇರಿಯುವ, ಕೊರೆಯುವ
More languagesFewer languages
mordant in Gujarati
રંગરખું raṅgarkhũ

Synonyms of mordant

All synonyms of mordant

Forms of mordant

Adjective
comparativemore mordant
superlativemost mordant
Noun
pluralmordants
Verb
third-person singular presentmordants
present participlemordanting
past participlemordanted
pastmordanted

Origin of mordant

From French mordant, from Latin mordeō. Doublet of mordent.

Words formed from mordant

Words that rhyme with mordant

Questions about mordant

What does mordant mean?
Mordant means having or showing a sharp or critical quality.
What is mordant in Tamil?
Mordant in Tamil is நிறங்கௌவி, நிறம் ஊன்றி, நிறம் நிறுத்தி. See Mordant meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is mordant?
Mordant can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce mordant?
Mordant is pronounced /ˈmɔːdn̩t/ (UK).

Words near mordant in the dictionary

  1. mordacities
  2. mordacity
  3. Mordad
  4. mordancies
  5. mordancy
  6. mordant
  7. mordant dye
  8. mordanted
  9. mordanting
  10. mordantings
  11. mordantly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mordant (page history and authors); mordant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mordant (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mordant (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); mordant (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.

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

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