Catalyst

How to spell catalyst

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce catalyst

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does catalyst mean?

1. nounA substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without being permanently changed itself.
2. nounA person or event that causes a significant change or sudden activity.

Catalyst in a sentence

• The new catalyst cut the reaction time in half during the lab trial.

• The merger acted as a catalyst for a complete overhaul of the company.

• Engineers coat the exhaust filter with a metal catalyst to reduce emissions.

• Her promotion became the catalyst for several other staff changes.

Where does catalyst come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word grew out of the chemistry term catalysis, which the Swedish scientist Jons Jacob Berzelius coined in 1836 to describe substances that speed up a reaction without being consumed by it. He built it on the ancient Greek katalusis, meaning a dissolving or breaking down, which combined kata, meaning down or completely, with luein, the verb to loosen or release. The English noun catalyst was then back-formed from catalysis to name the active substance itself, appearing in scientific writing by the early 1900s. The same Greek luein root that means to loosen also underlies words such as analysis and paralysis, so the spelling keeps that telltale -lys rather than the -lis a writer might expect. By the middle of the twentieth century catalyst had stepped beyond the laboratory into everyday speech, describing any person or event that triggers rapid change.

How the word is built

• cata- (down, completely)
• lys (from Greek lusis: a loosening)
• -t (agent ending, via catalysis)