Alkali

//ˈæl.kəˌlaɪ// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    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. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    any of various water-soluble compounds capable of turning litmus blue and reacting with an acid to form a salt and water wordnet
  3. 3
    Soluble mineral matter, other than common salt, contained in soils of natural waters. US, Western, countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a mixture of soluble salts found in arid soils and some bodies of water; detrimental to agriculture wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
basebaseacidacidityagentalkalinity

Antonyms

All antonyms
acid

Example

More examples

"Lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium and francium are alkali metals."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

alkali basaltalkali beealkali cellulosealkali feldsparalkali flatalkali flyalkali grassalkali greenalkali metalcaustic alkalimilk-alkali syndromecaustic soda

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.