yeast

UK/jiːst/US/jist/

nounB2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,879 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: yeasts

Yeast is the living ingredient that makes bread rise and beer brew. Fresh yeast, dried yeast, the yeast is working.

It is a fungus, and it eats sugar and gives out carbon dioxide and alcohol — bread keeps the gas and loses the alcohol in the oven, and beer does the reverse. Wild yeast in the air is what makes a sourdough starter work without any packet.

Definitions of yeast

1nounyeastThe living fungus that makes bread rise and beer ferment.B2
“Without yeast, the bread dough won't rise.”
- Said"Check the yeast is alive first; it should froth in warm water, I promise."
- WrittenThe yeasts woke slowly in the bowl, and the kitchen began to smell of beer.
- UsedAdd the yeast to the dry mix, never straight onto the salt, which kills it.
- ContrastYeast, not flour. Flour is the body of the bread; yeast is the living thing that lifts it. flour →
- Not thisBaking powder is not yeast. Powder works at once by chemistry; yeast takes hours.
- SimplyYeast makes the bread big. It is a small living thing.
Patterndried / fresh / instant yeast · a sachet of yeast · yeast rises / ferments · yeasty

yeast is a fungus.

Remember it

yEAST → the bread rises like the sun in the EAST

Bread with yeast in it rises slowly in a warm room, the way the sun rises in the east.

hooks ontoeast

Where it comes from

Old English gist comes from a Germanic root meaning to foam or ferment.

Proto-Germanic
*jestuz
Proto-West Germanic
*jestu
Old English
ġist
Middle English
yest
English, today
yeast

From Middle English yest, yeest, gest, gist, from Old English ġist, ġyst, from Proto-West Germanic jestu, from Proto-Germanic jestuz. Cognate with stq Jääst (“yeast”), West Frisian gêst, gist (“yeast”), Dutch gist (“yeast”), German Low German Gest (“yeast”), German Gischt (“sea foam”), Swedish jäst (“yeast”), Norwegian jest (“yeast”), Icelandic jöstur (“yeast”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

yeast in the wild

Most beer is fermented with a brewer's yeast and flavoured with hops.
Brewing
When it affects the vagina, it may be referred to as a yeast infection or thrush.
Candidiasis
Very rarely, yeast infections may become invasive, spreading to other parts of the body.
Candidiasis
Marmite ( MAR-myte) is a British savoury spread based on yeast extract invented by the Marmite Food Company in 1902.
Marmite
With their single-celled growth habit, yeasts can be contrasted with molds, which grow hyphae.
Yeast

1 / 3

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 ġist family

gist yeast

yeast — used about once every 3,827 pages · #8,879 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of yeast

1nounyeastThe living fungus that makes bread rise and beer ferment.B2

“Without yeast, the bread dough won't rise.”

Said"Check the yeast is alive first; it should froth in warm water, I promise."
WrittenThe yeasts woke slowly in the bowl, and the kitchen began to smell of beer.
UsedAdd the yeast to the dry mix, never straight onto the salt, which kills it.
ContrastYeast, not flour. Flour is the body of the bread; yeast is the living thing that lifts it. flour →
Not thisBaking powder is not yeast. Powder works at once by chemistry; yeast takes hours.
SimplyYeast makes the bread big. It is a small living thing.

Patterndried / fresh / instant yeast · a sachet of yeast · yeast rises / ferments · yeasty

yeast is a fungus.