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Lewis acid

American

noun

Chemistry.

any substance capable of forming a covalent bond with a base by accepting a pair of electrons from it.

Lewis acid British

noun

a substance capable of accepting a pair of electrons from a base to form a covalent bond Compare Lewis base

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Lewis acid

First recorded in 1940–45; named after G. N. Lewis

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.

They found that adding a key ingredient could help: a chemical known as a Lewis acid added to the liquid solution redirected those molecules.

From Science Daily • Jan. 2, 2024

As the two examples above illustrate, Brønsted-Lowry acid-base reactions represent a subcategory of Lewis acid reactions, specifically, those in which the acid species is H+.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

Boric acid, H3BO3, is not a Brønsted-Lowry acid but a Lewis acid.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

The species donating the electron pair that compose the bond is a Lewis base, the species accepting the electron pair is a Lewis acid, and the product of the reaction is a Lewis acid-base adduct.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

Many Lewis acid-base reactions are displacement reactions in which one Lewis base displaces another Lewis base from an acid-base adduct, or in which one Lewis acid displaces another Lewis acid:

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023