noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The process by which something hardens.
2. 2
   the act of making something harder (firmer or tighter or more compact) wordnet
3. 3
   Something which hardens.
4. 4
   the process of becoming hard or solid by cooling or drying or crystallization wordnet
5. 5
   abnormal hardening or thickening of tissue wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of harden form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

abidingnessacclimationacclimatizationaccommodationaccustomingadaption

Example

More examples

"Don't touch my spaghetti bridge! The glue is still hardening."

Related phrases

case hardeningcase-hardeninghardening of the arteriesprecipitation hardeningradiation hardeningself-hardeningstrain hardeningwork hardening

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