Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use leaven in a sentence

11 example sentences · noun, verb

Leaven means any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods. Example: “Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking.”

Examples of leaven by meaning

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

  • The leaven of insincerity worked through all the fibres of his being.1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 213

verbTo add a leavening agent.

  • Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking.

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

  • 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
  • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill....

verbTo 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.

More sentences with leaven

  • American muffins are chemically leavened, enriched, semi-sweet quickbreads baked in individual portions.2015, Darra Goldstein, editor, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, page 465. From the entry American muffin
  • Dawkins’ book is, oddly, much more embittered and deeply emotional, although leavened by his effervescent wit.2011, Philip W. Anderson, More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon, →ISBN, page 177. From the entry embittered
  • It consisted of a thick white porridge leavened with yeast and eaten together with a boiled potato.1997, Josef Hiršal, Michael Henry Heim, A Bohemian Youth, page 67. From the entry rebutter
  • Then quickly, not giving him a chance to answer, she leavened it, using the language of long-past childhood games.2005, Lynne Kaufman, Taking Flight, MIRA, →ISBN, page 191. From the entry tradesies
  • If it comes back, starts to creep back, that's just like leaven growing in your life—get rid of it.2003, Fred R. Coulter, “The Redemption of the Firstborn”, in God’s Plan for Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days, Hollister…. From the entry unleavenedness

Meaning of leaven

  1. noun Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
  2. noun Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change.
  3. noun Chametz.

Full definition of leaven

Questions about leaven in a sentence

How do you use leaven in a sentence?
Leaven is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking.”
What is a short sentence with leaven?
“Her optimism seemed to leaven the otherwise tense environment.”
What does leaven mean?
Leaven means any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leaven (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use leaven in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/leaven. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.