verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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acidificationnoun
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acidifiernoun
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reacidificationnoun
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reacidifyverb
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acidifiableadjective
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semiacidifiedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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acidifysimple
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acidifiessimple
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have acidifiedperfect
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has acidifiedperfect
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am acidifyingprogressive
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are acidifyingprogressive
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is acidifyingprogressive
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have been acidifyingperfect progressive
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has been acidifyingperfect progressive
Past
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acidifiedsimple
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had acidifiedperfect
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was acidifyingprogressive
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were acidifyingprogressive
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had been acidifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of acidify
Explanation
To acidify something is to chemically turn it into an acid or make it more acidic. Farmers often acidify soil by adding fertilizer to it. When you acidify something, you increase its acid content or make it more sour. Too much carbon dioxide dissolving into oceans acidifies them, one of the many negative effects of global warming. When it comes to food, you're most likely to acidify a dish by adding citrus fruits, like lemons, which taste sour. The root word of the verb acidify is the Latin acidus, which means "sour or sharp."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sulfides also acidify the water, which can accelerate weathering.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2024
But other scientists say even those could acidify because their outflow will slow as atmospheric concentrations surge.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 19, 2022
It is a process in which beneficial bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms break down and acidify food, transforming and preserving it.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2022
Together with one of her Ph.D. supervisors, JCU marine biologist Philip Munday, Dixson pioneered research into the effects on fish of rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, which cause the oceans to acidify.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 9, 2022
Boil off the gas, add ammonia until a precipitate is formed, and then acidify somewhat strongly with acetic acid.
From A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. by Cornelius Beringer
Unfortunately, as CO2 emissions increase, it acidifies the ocean, which can make it less hospitable for life.
From Salon ● May 21, 2025
Too much nitrogen acidifies the ground, which reduces the amount of nutrients for plants and trees.
From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2023
Kungfu Kitchen does Shanghai soup dumplings, too, paired with a black-vinegar-and-syrup dipping sauce, which fortifies and acidifies the delicate broth that explodes from the dough walls on the first bite.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2021
Meanwhile, a growing shipping fleet continues to introduce noise and collide with large whales, persistent pollutants accumulate in the food web, the ocean acidifies, etc.; the list goes on.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 31, 2020
As often is the case in Peele’s work, comedy underlines the unease and acidifies into social critique, as when the nervous flyer approaches a couple of turbaned fellows who have not stowed their electronic devices.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 29, 2019
For example, the U.S. regulated industrial sulfur and nitrogen dioxide emissions in 1990, but only after we had determined that they caused acid rain and acidified many water bodies in the Northeast.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 2, 2024
Low oxygen levels, in addition to harming sea life, can disrupt food webs and even make marine water more acidified.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2021
PEA is known to warn mammals and sea creatures of predators and its effectiveness may be increased in an acidified ocean, researchers said.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2021
It may have also acidified Earth's oceans after its impact, according to a study published in October 2019.
From Fox News ● Jan. 17, 2020
Capable of being acidified, or converted into an acid.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster
Few countries are more exposed to climate change than Tuvalu, a chain of coral atolls reckoning with acidifying oceans, tropical disease and rising seas.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
In the face of warming, acidifying oceans, coral skeletons are at risk of dissolving.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2024
It's well established that rising global temperatures, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, are making dramatic changes to our oceans, from increasing sea levels and intensifying storms to acidifying the water itself.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2023
The threats, the killers, are legion: Warming streams, dammed rivers, an acidifying ocean, impassable culverts, toxins in every tire on every car, stormwater runoff, watersheds choked by sprawl, vanishing floodplains, armored shorelines, abundant sea lions.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 24, 2023
For it is not acids floating in the air, but the oxygen or acidifying principle, which injures or enlarges pulmonary ulcers by combining with the purulent matter.
From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
