catalyst

CEFRB2

/ˈkæt.ɪ.lɪst/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
Something that causes an event or change to happen faster.
02
noun
Extra detail
An inciting incident that sets the successive conflict into motion.

Examples

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Also pronounced

Deep Dive

Extra meanings

Something that encourages progress or change.
A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.
A catalytic converter.

In context

Economic development and integration are working as a catalyst for peace.
Rosa Parks was a true catalyst for change and she was only one person. Hearing about Rosa Parks and her protest showed me that there is hope for me and all the students in Ms. G's classes to truly be catalysts for change.
Enzymes, the catalysts of biological systems, are remarkable molecular devices that determine the pattern of chemical transformations.

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

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

The word in print, with each source given in full.

Enzymes, the catalysts of biological systems, are remarkable molecular devices that determine the pattern of chemical transformations.
1988, Lubert Stryer, Biochemistry, 3rd edition, page 177
It was a morning baptized by my first cup of coffee, freshly brewed over a gravel-bar fire, while they celebrated with the stronger catalyst of sour-mash whiskey in their fishing-vest cups.
1978, Ernest George Schwiebert, Trout, volume 2
The current view by both Labour and Conservative politicians is that the state of the UK railway is unsustainable, and the pandemic acted as a catalyst in exposing its weaknesses.
2023 May 31, Tammy Samuel, Fergus McLaverty, “The political picture: what lies ahead for Britain's railways?”, in RAIL, number 984, page 31
Israel's fear for the reactor—rather than Egypt's of it—was the greater catalyst for war.
2004, Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East, page 76
He [countertenor Anthony Roth Constanzo] also enjoys being the catalyst whereby opera fertilises other art forms: recently, he's collaborated with Japanese kabuki actors, and a project with dancers from New York City Ballet is in the offing.
2014 August 8, Rupert Christiansen, “The truth about falsettos [print version: 12 August 2014, p. R8]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review)

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From catalysis + -ist.