carbonate
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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carbonates,
present (3rd person singular)
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carbonated,
past participle, past
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carbonating
present participle
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to form into a carbonate.
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to charge or impregnate with carbon dioxide.
carbonated drinks.
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to make sprightly; enliven.
noun
verb
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to form or turn into a carbonate
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(tr) to treat with carbon dioxide or carbonic acid, as in the manufacture of soft drinks
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A salt or ester of carbonic acid, containing the group CO 3. The reaction of carbonic acid with a metal results in a salt (such as sodium carbonate), and the reaction of carbonic acid with an organic compound results in an ester (such as diethyl carbonate).
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Any other compound containing the group CO 3. Carbonates include minerals such as calcite and aragonite.
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Sediment or a sedimentary rock formed by the precipitation of organic or inorganic carbon from an aqueous solution of carbonates of calcium, magnesium, or iron. Limestone is a carbonate rock.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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carbonatornoun
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noncarbonatenoun
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noncarbonatedadjective
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semicarbonateadjective
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uncarbonatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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carbonatesimple
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carbonatessimple
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have carbonatedperfect
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has carbonatedperfect
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am carbonatingprogressive
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are carbonatingprogressive
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is carbonatingprogressive
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have been carbonatingperfect progressive
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has been carbonatingperfect progressive
Past
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carbonatedsimple
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had carbonatedperfect
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was carbonatingprogressive
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were carbonatingprogressive
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had been carbonatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of carbonate
1785–95; carbon(ic acid) + -ate 2, later taken as -ate 1
Vocabulary lists containing carbonate
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:
"There are mandatory vitamins and minerals which manufacturers in the UK are required to add to white wheat flour such as calcium carbonate, niacin and thiamin," she says.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
Coral can live for decades or centuries, and they form a skeleton of calcium carbonate layers as they grow, kind of like rings on a tree.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Kambamura said PLZ had also nearly completed a plant to refine lithium carbonate, the next point along the processing sequence.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
Scientists believe the striking turquoise color comes from blooms of coccolithophores, microscopic phytoplankton coated in calcium carbonate plates.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Oh, stuff like magnesium salts, and alcohol for keeping the Deltas and Epsilons small and backward, and calcium carbonate for bones, and all that sort of thing.”
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
These included gypsum, carbonates, basalts, dunite, and anorthosite.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 8, 2026
This makes it acidic, and the carbonates transform to CO2.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 12, 2024
Mars’s warmer, wetter past makes it the second-best place in the solar system to find carbonates.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 12, 2023
Take limestone, a chalky rock rich in minerals called carbonates.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 12, 2023
She asked for a machine that carbonates water for her birthday so we’d stop going through so many cans.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
“I definitely wouldn’t do anything carbonated before a game. Makes you burp and all that kind of stuff.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Artificially sweetened beverages were defined as low-calorie carbonated beverages.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
For the study, sugar-sweetened beverages included carbonated beverages, punch, lemonade and sports drinks.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 10, 2026
So ginger ale and tonic water became sick-day staples in our home, a bottle uncapped with a satisfying carbonated hiss if someone had a fever.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
I mopped up the carbonated explosion on the table while Javaneh sipped her Dr Pepper through a straw.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
"So I think carbonating it and adding fruit flavour makes it more interesting. That's the real innovation."
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2025
Whether or not fruit is added, the final step of cider making calls for carbonating the cider with CO2 to make it effervescent, and then it is either canned or kegged.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2021
However, according to NAS, fully carbonating these wastes could require building costly plants to speed the reactions.
From Science Magazine ● Sep. 3, 2020
Or it may contain additives such as “flavour enhancers, colours, emulsifiers, emulsifying salts, sweeteners, thickeners and anti-foaming, bulking, carbonating, foaming, gelling and glazing agents”.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 12, 2020
The sampling should be performed expeditiously to prevent carbonating, and portions placed in a stoppered bottle.
From The Handbook of Soap Manufacture by W. H. Simmons
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.
