reactant

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,828 of 15,258Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: reactants

A reactant is a substance that goes into a chemical reaction. The limiting reactant, mix the reactants, reactant and product.

It sits on the left of the equation and the product sits on the right. The reactant that runs out first is called the limiting reactant, and it decides how much product you can get.

Definitions of reactant

1nounreactantA substance that goes into a reaction.C1
“Once one reactant is used up the reaction stops.”

reactant is a substance.

Where it comes from

Middle English
ampte
English
ant
English, today
reactant

Built from

ǣmætte · Old English — ant
*maitaną · Proto-Germanic — to cut

From react + -ant. ant comes from Middle English ampte. From Middle English ampte, amte, amete, amote, ante, emete, emot, emotte, empt, empte, from Old English ǣmete, ǣmette, ǣmytte, ǣmætte (“ant”), from Proto-West Germanic āmaitijā (“ant”), of unknown, but probably from Proto-Germanic ē- (“off, away”) + maitaną (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European meh₂y- (“to cut”). See also emmet. 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Chemistry & Elements

Practise this word

reactant in the wild

In biochemistry, a consecutive series of chemical reactions (where the product of one reaction is the reactant of the next reaction) form metabolic pathways.
Chemical reaction
A reactant is a substance or compound that is consumed in a chemical reaction.
Reagent
Solvents, though involved in the reaction mechanism, are usually not called reactants.
Reagent
During a chemical reaction, reactants are transformed into products after passing through a high energy transition state.
Product (chemistry)
The liver responds by producing many acute-phase reactants.
Acute-phase protein

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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.

Related words

the ǣmætte family

ant hydrant

reactant — used about once every 81,824 pages · #14,828 · point at the bar for the others

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