Leaven
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods. countable, uncountable
- 2 an influence that works subtly to lighten or modify something wordnet
- 3 Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod."
- 4 a substance used to produce fermentation in dough or a liquid wordnet
- 5 Chametz. countable, uncountable
"On the fourteenth day of Nisan men search for leaven by candlelight."
- 1 To add a leavening agent. transitive
"Yeast is used to leaven bread, making it rise during baking."
- 2 cause to puff up with a leaven wordnet
- 3 To cause to rise by fermentation. transitive
- 4 To temper an action, decision, attitude, characteristic, etc. figuratively, transitive
"Duke. No more euasion: We haue with a leauen'd, and prepared choice Proceeded to you; therefore take your honors:[...]"
- 5 To imbue; to infect; to vitiate. figuratively, transitive
"The comedian's jokes helped leaven the atmosphere during the serious meeting."
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- 6 To rise or become larger; to prove.
Example
More examples"Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread: in the first day there shall be no leaven in your houses; whosoever shall eat any thing leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall perish out of Israel."
Etymology
From Middle English levayn, borrowed from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin *levāmen, a noun based on Latin levō (“raise”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.