HOW TO PRONOUNCE
leaven
/ˈlɛv.ən/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:05
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What does leaven mean?
noun
- Any agent used to make dough rise or to have a similar effect on baked goods.
- (figuratively) Anything that induces change, especially a corrupting or vitiating change.
- Chametz.
More meanings (5)
verb
- To add a leavening agent.
- To cause to rise by fermentation.
- (figuratively) To temper an action, decision, attitude, characteristic, etc.
- (figuratively) To imbue; to infect; to vitiate.
- To rise or become larger; to prove.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈlɛv.ən/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
The people whom an open split would have taken away remained to leaven and dominate the whole lump.
If there is on earth an instance where a little leaven may leaven the whole lump, it is that of the religious shipmaster.
More book examples (3)
Finally, there is his conscience—the accumulated sediment of ancestral faintheartedness in countless generations, with vague religious fears and superstitions to leaven and mellow it.
With her odd good looks she very likely had just that subacid leaven for which, in the alchemy of attraction, the Duc was in search.
He did not know how to separate the serious from the unimportant, and he had never added the leaven of humor to the day's duties.