Reagent

//ɹiˈeɪ.d͡ʒənt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A compound or mixture of compounds used to treat or test materials, samples, other compounds or reactants in a laboratory or sometimes an industrial setting.
  2. 2
    a chemical agent for use in chemical reactions wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
acidacidityagentalkalialkalinityalloisomer

Example

More examples

"Perchloric acid (HClO₄) is a powerful reagent."

Etymology

Possibly from Latin reagō. Compare with Norwegian Bokmål reagens. The sequence of act → action → agent → agency shows morphologic and semantic parallel, and apparent cognate relation, with react → reaction → reagent → reagency.

Related phrases

Benedict's reagentBertrand's reagentBrady's reagentEdman's reagentEhrlich's reagentFenton's reagentFroehde reagentGilman reagentGrignard reagentKagan's reagentKarl Fischer reagentKovac's reagent

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