leaven

UK/ˈlɛv.ən/US/ˈlɛv.ən/

verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Other forms: leavened, leavening, leavens

To leaven is to lighten dough, or to relieve something dull. Leaven the bread, leaven the speech with jokes, unleavened bread.

The figurative sense is the commoner, and leavening a serious talk with humour is what every speaker is advised to do. Unleavened bread is flat because nothing was added to raise it, which is the Passover requirement.

Definitions of leaven

1verbleavenTo lighten dough, or to relieve something dull.C2
“The bakers leaven the dough with a spoonful of old starter.”

leaven is a lightening.

Where it comes from

Old French levain comes from Latin levare, to raise.

Middle English
levayn
English, today
leaven

From Middle English levayn. From Middle English levayn, borrowed from Old French levain, from Vulgar Latin levāmen, a noun based on Latin levō (“raise”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

leaven in the wild

Sourdough is a leavening agent containing naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria.
Sourdough
In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid, which gives the bread its distinctive sour taste and improves its keeping qualities.
Sourdough
An alternative or supplement to leavening agents is mechanical action by which air is incorporated (i.e. kneading).
Leavening agent
Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough.
Snickerdoodle
Chametz are foods with leavening agents that are forbidden to Jews on the holiday of Passover.
Chametz

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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.

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