Solvent

How to spell solvent

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce solvent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does solvent mean?

1. nounA liquid that dissolves another substance to form a solution.
2. adjectiveHaving enough money or assets to pay all of one's debts.

Solvent in a sentence

• noun

  The technician used a powerful solvent to remove the dried paint.

• adjective

  The audit confirmed that the company was still solvent despite the losses.

• noun

  Water is the most common solvent in everyday cleaning.

• adjective

  Careful budgeting kept the small business solvent through the recession.

Where does solvent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin solvere, a verb that literally meant 'to loosen' or 'to release', and by extension 'to dissolve' and 'to pay off a debt'. Solvent is the present-participle form, solvens, meaning 'loosening' or 'releasing'. English took it up in the 1600s, first in the financial sense of a person able to release themselves from their debts, that is, able to pay them. The chemical sense, a liquid that loosens and breaks apart a solid until it dissolves, followed soon after and fits the original meaning beautifully. The same solvere root gives us 'dissolve', 'solution', 'resolve' and 'absolve', and remembering that family helps fix the -v- and the -ent ending in the spelling.

How the word is built

• solv- (from Latin solvere: to loosen, dissolve, pay)
• -ent (suffix forming adjectives and nouns)