Alkaline

How to spell alkaline

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce alkaline

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does alkaline mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a pH greater than 7; having the chemical properties of a base rather than an acid.

Alkaline in a sentence

• The gardener tested the soil and found it strongly alkaline.

• Baking soda dissolved in water produces a mildly alkaline solution.

Where does alkaline come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

The word traces back to the Arabic al-qili, where al- is simply the definite article 'the' and qili meant the calcined ashes of the saltwort plant, a salty residue rich in soda and potash that was used in soap and glass making. Medieval Latin took this in as alkali during the Middle Ages, and English adopted 'alkali' for such caustic, base-forming substances by the late 1300s. The adjective 'alkaline', meaning having the chemical properties of an alkali, was formed later by adding the Latin-derived suffix -ine, which signals relation or composition. The Arabic article al- accounts for the leading 'al-', the same fused article that survives in words such as algebra and alchemy. A useful spelling memory is that the word literally contains 'alkali' plus an 'ne', so picture the salt-ash root with the -ine ending attached.

How the word is built

• alkal- (from Arabic al-qili: the calcined ashes of the saltwort plant)
• -ine (adjective suffix indicating relation or composition)