leaven
Americannoun
-
a substance, as yeast or baking powder, that causes fermentation and expansion of dough or batter.
-
fermented dough reserved for producing fermentation in a new batch of dough.
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an element that produces an altering or transforming influence.
verb (used with object)
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leavens,
present (3rd person singular)
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leavened,
past participle, past
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leavening
present participle
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to add leaven to (dough or batter) and cause to rise.
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to permeate with an altering or transforming element.
noun
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any substance that produces fermentation in dough or batter, such as yeast, and causes it to rise
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a piece of such a substance kept to ferment a new batch of dough
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an agency or influence that produces a gradual change
verb
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to cause fermentation in (dough or batter)
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to pervade, causing a gradual change, esp with some moderating or enlivening influence
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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leavensimple
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leavenssimple
-
have leavenedperfect
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has leavenedperfect
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am leaveningprogressive
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are leaveningprogressive
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is leaveningprogressive
-
have been leaveningperfect progressive
-
has been leaveningperfect progressive
Past
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leavenedsimple
-
had leavenedperfect
-
was leaveningprogressive
-
were leaveningprogressive
-
had been leaveningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of leaven
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English levain, levein, leven, from Anglo-French levein, levain, Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin levāmen (unrecorded) “means of raising or lifting,” from Latin levāmen “alleviation, mitigation, relief,” derivative of levā(re) “to raise, lift up; relieve, reduce” + -men noun suffix
Explanation
Leaven, as a noun, is that which causes transformation. It’s the source of yeast that makes your bread rise, it’s the risen bread, and it’s anything that changes the nature of something else. Coming through Old French from the Latin verb levare, which means “to raise,” leaven changes everything. It makes dough go from flat to loaf, and it’s also the term to describe the risen dough before it’s baked. And leaven can be anything that causes transformation — "Winning the lottery will be the leaven that allows you to travel the world." Additionally it’s a verb: "When you bake bread, you leaven the dough to make it rise."
Vocabulary lists containing leaven
Stairway To Leaven: Baking Vocabulary
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April Vocabulary Words
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The Devil's Arithmetic
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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:
“Weapons” has something for everyone: jump scares for horrorphiles, nods to classics like “Rashomon” and “Magnolia” for film buffs, and more than a few laughs to leaven the tension.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
That’s in keeping with a director who likes to leaven something profound with something ordinary.
From Seattle Times ● May 28, 2024
There was gloss and sass to leaven the tough stuff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
In the evening we will start with the first dough and when it's complete we let it leaven and rise overnight.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2023
For one thing, any hopes my father may have had that to meet the General in person would arouse a sense of respect or sympathy to leaven his feelings against him proved without foundation.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
It combines sharp-eyed intelligence with genuine modesty and leavens clever opportunism with the recognition that all men are created equal, even if some are less equal in their instincts for getting paid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Whether the songs are presented in their orchestral splendor or as frenetic electronica, each needle drop leavens the natural comedy of John’s frantic awkwardness or captures his chronic sorrow.
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2025
The yeast is tolerant of this acidic environment, and it ferments carbohydrates other than maltose to produce the carbon dioxide that leavens the bread.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 1, 2023
Variegated foliage, along with turquoise and purple accents in the garden, leavens the darker hues.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2021
The medicines we give act not only by detecting this poison of blood, which, like yeast, leavens all in its neighborhood, but by sending it out of the body like a culprit.
From Health Five Lay Sermons to Working-People by John Brown
Closely cropped and dramatically lighted, the tight composition gives the familiar scene a new immediacy and intimacy, leavened by the playful interaction of the Christ child and St. John.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
This produced an effect of narcissism leavened by good-heartedness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
The series largely belongs to them — both actors are terrific, Shannon imbuing Garfield with a gravity leavened with kindness and humor, Macfadyen’s Guiteau, optimistically dedicated to his delusions yet always about to pop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2025
What you might recognize as a modern-style fruitcake – a moist, leavened dessert studded with fruits and nuts – was probably first baked in the early Middle Ages in Europe.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2024
Most of them were smallfolk: crofters, fieldhands, fishermen, sheepherders, the sons of innkeeps and traders and tanners, leavened with a smattering of sellswords and freeriders hungry for plunder.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
That engrossing yourself in every meticulous step — from measuring out your own leavening agents to bringing your butter and eggs to room temperature — is what qualifies as real baking.
From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2026
The natural leavening gives them a lighter, crispier crust and an airy, mildly tangy crumb.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
A corrosive rage courses through this 163-minute odyssey that’s matched by a leavening absurdism, Jude aghast at the comical stupidity of our inauthentic, greed-driven world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
“Temperature is part of the chemical reaction process for baked goods made with a leavening agent, such as baking powder,” nutrition and wellness educator Jenna Smith wrote for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign extension website.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2023
He recorded the moment in his journal, leavening his relief with the one overriding concern that had lent urgency to the work of all the atomic scientists of those years.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
