leavening

[lev-uh-ning]

noun

1. Also called leavening agent. a substance used to produce fermentation in dough or batter; leaven.

2. the act or process of causing to ferment by leaven.

3. leaven.

Word History and Origins

Origin of leavening¹

First recorded in 1600–10; leaven + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

The film’s comedy won’t appeal to all tastes, but some will welcome the leavening effect it has on the movie’s more frightening aspects.

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Add the leavening of Lear’s style of humor executed by modern voices – nothing snide or so mean that another character can’t let it roll off their armor – and the culmination is an easy, welcoming space.

Read more on Salon

Seven years after her father’s disappearance, Diamond Newberry and her mother are struggling, but Diamond’s observations provide comic leavening.

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They are also what make it rise in the absence of other leavening agents.

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You would think all the leavening would make it light, but the weight of the other ingredients created 4-pound pancakes, which were so thick that the inside could only cook if the outside was burnt.

Read more on Los Angeles Times