bleach

CEFRC1

/bliːt͡ʃ/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    the whiteness that results from removing the color from something.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A variety of bleach.

Examples

  • I used too much bleach and made a hole in my shirt.

  • You can bleach and dye your hair at home.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • [blit͡ʃ]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To treat with bleach, especially so as to whiten (fabric, paper, etc.) or lighten (hair).

  2. A chemical, such as sodium hypochlorite or hydrogen peroxide, or a preparation of such a chemical, used for disinfecting or whitening.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To be whitened or lightened (by the sun, for example).

More examples

In context

  • Mixing ammonia and bleach is dangerous.

  • Once coral bleaching begins, corals tend to continue to bleach even if the stressor is removed.

  • semantically bleached words that have become illocutionary particles

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

To remove the stubborn stain, I decided to blank the white shirt with a special solution.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English blechen, from Old English blǣċan (“to bleach, whiten”), from Proto-West Germanic *blaikijan, from Proto-Germanic *blaikijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine”). Cognate with Dutch bleken (“to bleach”), German bleichen (“to bleach”), Danish blege, Swedish bleka (“to bleach”). Related to Old English blāc (“pale”) (English blake; compare also bleak).