ferment

UK/fəˈmɛnt/US/fɚˈmɛnt/

verbB2+2 meanings Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,662 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: fermented, fermenting, ferments

To ferment is to let food change and sour through tiny living cultures. Ferment the cabbage, fermented milk, let it ferment.

Bacteria and yeasts eat the sugars and produce acid and alcohol, which changes the flavour and preserves the food at the same time — bread, beer, cheese, yoghurt and soy sauce are all fermented. As a noun, ferment means unrest: a country in ferment. Note that the Latin means to boil.

Definitions of ferment

1verbfermentTo let food change through living cultures.B2+
“The cabbage is left to ferment in jars until it turns sour.”
- Said"Let it ferment for a week then taste it for me; sour and fizzy is right."
- WrittenThe cabbage fermented in a crock under the stairs all autumn, and the house smelled of it.
- UsedFerment at room temperature, out of direct light, with the jar loosely covered.
- ContrastFerment, not cook. Cooking is heat and minutes; fermenting is time and living things, with no flame at all. cook →
- Not thisRotting is not fermenting. Fermenting is decay you control, and the result is meant to be eaten.
- SimplyThe milk ferments. It becomes yogurt.
Patternferment + noun (cabbage, milk, grapes) · fermented + noun · leave sth to ferment · fermentation
2nounstateA state of unrest.C1
“The country was in a state of ferment after the election result.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

ferment is a chemical change.

Remember it

It probably comes from the Latin for boil: leave fruit juice long enough and it bubbles as if it were boiling, with no fire at all.

hooks ontoboil

Where it comes from

Latin fermentum is a substance causing fermentation, from fervere, to boil. Fervent and fervour come from the same boiling.

Latin
fermentō — to leaven, ferment
Middle French
ferment
Middle English
ferment
English, today
ferment

Built from

fermentum · Latin — substance causing fermentation

From Middle English ferment, from Middle French ferment, from Latin fermentō (“to leaven, ferment”), from fermentum (“substance causing fermentation”), possibly from contraction of fervimentum, from fervēre. See also fervent.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Definitions of ferment

1verbfermentTo let food change through living cultures.B2+

“The cabbage is left to ferment in jars until it turns sour.”

Said"Let it ferment for a week then taste it for me; sour and fizzy is right."
WrittenThe cabbage fermented in a crock under the stairs all autumn, and the house smelled of it.
UsedFerment at room temperature, out of direct light, with the jar loosely covered.
ContrastFerment, not cook. Cooking is heat and minutes; fermenting is time and living things, with no flame at all. cook →
Not thisRotting is not fermenting. Fermenting is decay you control, and the result is meant to be eaten.
SimplyThe milk ferments. It becomes yogurt.

Patternferment + noun (cabbage, milk, grapes) · fermented + noun · leave sth to ferment · fermentation

2nounstateA state of unrest.C1

“The country was in a state of ferment after the election result.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

ferment is a chemical change.