Catalyst

//ˈkæt.ɪ.lɪst// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.

    "Enzymes, the catalysts of biological systems, are remarkable molecular devices that determine the pattern of chemical transformations."

  2. 2
    something that causes an important event to happen wordnet
  3. 3
    Something that encourages progress or change. figuratively

    "Economic development and integration are working as a catalyst for peace."

  4. 4
    (chemistry) a substance that initiates or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected wordnet
  5. 5
    An inciting incident that sets the successive conflict into motion.

    "The current view by both Labour and Conservative politicians is that the state of the UK railway is unsustainable, and the pandemic acted as a catalyst in exposing its weaknesses."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    A catalytic converter.
  2. 7
    An object that facilitates the casting of a spell (such as a magic wand).

Synonyms

All synonyms
acceleratoragentagent provocateuragitatoragitpropalterant

Example

More examples

"It would be difficult to improve the device without an effective catalyst."

Etymology

From catalysis + -ist.

Related phrases

Adams's catalystGrubbs' catalystLindlar catalystVandenberg catalystZiegler catalystZiegler-Natta catalystphase-transfer catalyststereospecific catalysttriphase catalystcatalytic converter

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