Yeast
/jiːst/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA living substance used to make bread rise and some drinks ferment.
Extra definitions
nounAn organism making dough rise.
nounA fungus used in baking.
nounA substance causing fermentation.
Sentence Examples
Add yeast to warm water.
The yeast makes bread rise.
Brewers use yeast to ferment sugar.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
None
Antonyms:
None
Word Origin & History
From Middle English yest, yeest, gest, gist, from Old English ġist, ġyst, from Proto-West Germanic *jestu, from Proto-Germanic *jestuz. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Jääst (“yeast”), West Frisian gêst, gist (“yeast”), Dutch gist (“yeast”), German Low German Gest (“yeast”), German Gischt (“sea foam”), Swedish jäst (“yeast”), Norwegian jest (“yeast”), Icelandic jöstur (“yeast”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
“A microscopical examination of the yeast taken from these rapid vigorous fermentations will only be able to give useful conclusions in one respect.”
— 1903, Alfred Peter Carlslund Jørgensen (R. Grey, translator), Practical Management of Pure Yeast: The Application and Examination of Brewery, Distillery, and Wine, Yeasts, The Brewing trade review, page 17:
“But what most puzzled and confounded you was a long, limber, portentous, black mass of something hovering in the centre of the picture over three blue, dim, perpendicular lines floating in a nameless yeast.”
— 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Add ____ to warm water.