noun
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the quality or state of being acid
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the amount of acid present in a solution, often expressed in terms of pH
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another name for hyperacidity
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of acidity
From the Late Latin word aciditās, dating back to 1610–20. See acid, -ity
Explanation
Acidity is sourness, so you might turn down a bite of your friend's kumquat because its acidity is just too much for you. This noun is good for literal acidity, like a lemon's sour flavor or, in scientific terms, the chemical quality of a substance that reacts with a base to make salt. You can also use it in a figurative way when someone's tone is sharp and biting: "The acidity in my dad's voice told me we were really in trouble for eating all the tomatoes in his garden."
Vocabulary lists containing acidity
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:
Compared with the sugar-free gum, chewing Hubba Bubba significantly increased saliva acidity, producing a 1.4 point drop in pH.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
There’s heat, acidity and flavor all in one neatly packaged bottle.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026
Tasting notes: Crisp, linear and saline, with bright acidity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
"The use of herbs and natural seasonings as alternatives to salt or culinary techniques such as using the acidity of citrus fruits may help reduce discretionary salt use while maintaining food palatability," concluded Santos.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
There was an unmistakable trace of acidity here.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
Mother herself, played with benign obliviousness by Carolyn McCormick, utters streams of soothing phrases, ignoring both her husband’s acidities and her children’s increasing discomfort.
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2014
If peak acidities rather than long-term averages are what matters most, natural variability could make things worse.
From Economist ● Jul. 1, 2010
Percy Hammond: "Excepting the soft acidities of Mr. Strachey's investigation, it is the most entertaining, so far as we know, of the impudent annals of its exemplary topic."
From Time Magazine Archive
The most celebrated is Dorothy Parker, essentially a short-story writer whose glib acidities at and near the Algonquin Round Table gave her a legendary reputation.
From Time Magazine Archive
Miss Mapp felt it better to tear herself away before she began distilling all sorts of acidities that welled up in her fruitful mind.
From Miss Mapp by Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
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.
