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alkali

UK/ˈæl.kəˌlaɪ/US/ˈæl.kəˌlaɪ/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,519 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: alkalis

An alkali is a substance that neutralises acid and feels soapy. A strong alkali, alkali burns, acid and alkali.

The soapy feel is your own skin dissolving slightly, which is why strong alkalis are more dangerous than they seem and why alkali burns go deeper than acid ones. On the pH scale anything above seven is alkaline. Note that the word came from Arabic, from the ashes of a plant that yielded it.

Definitions of alkali

  1. 1nounalkaliA substance that neutralises acid and feels soapy.B2+

    “Soap is made by mixing fats with a strong alkali such as lye.”

alkali is a substance.

Also accepted in games: base

Where it comes from

Arabic al-qali means the ashes, from the saltwort plant burned to make it. The al- is the Arabic article, as in algebra.

  1. French

    alcali

  2. English, today

    alkali

Built from

  • قَلَى · Arabic — to roast in a pan, fry

Borrowed from French alcali. From French alcali, from Medieval Latin alcali, ultimately from Arabic قلي (“alkali, ashes (in reference to ashes of the saltwort)”), related to قَلَى (“to roast in a pan, fry”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space

Practise this word

alkali in the wild

  • The alkali metals consist of the chemical elements lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K), rubidium (Rb), caesium (Cs), and francium (Fr).

    Alkali metal

  • Caesium, the fifth alkali metal, is the most reactive of all the metals.

    Alkali metal

  • The elements have very similar properties: they are all shiny, silvery-white, somewhat reactive metals, and they are less reactive than the alkali metals at standard temperature and pressure.

    Alkaline earth metal

  • If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline compounds, it is called an alkali flat.

    Dry lake

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.