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:
By controlling tiny changes in acidity near electrodes, researchers dramatically improved the production of valuable chemical ingredients, raising the proportion of the desired product from approximately 16% to 97%.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2026
There are, of course, soups where acidity is built in earlier: Chinese hot-and-sour soups, borscht and various Eastern European sour soups all have their own traditions and techniques.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
White wine fans tend to fall into three camps—Chardonnay drinkers who like rich, full-bodied whites, Sauvignon Blanc sippers who favor acidity and herbaceousness, and Pinot Grigio pounders who prioritize lightness and drinkability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Beneath its casual, slightly rumpled appearance was a specific bit of flavor logic: salt, fat, sweetness, acidity, glutamates upon glutamates.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
The mere thought of adding acidity to my stomach stirred more nausea.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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
Her laborious refinement and sincerity are expertly relieved by the acidities of Edna May Oliver.
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 E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
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.
