biodegrade

1. 1.

   break down naturally through the action of biological agents

   “Plastic bottles do not biodegrade”

   Broaderdecompose

Other forms of biodegrade

past tense

biodegraded·

present participle

biodegrading·

third person

biodegrades·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about biodegrade

What does biodegrade mean?

biodegrade means "break down naturally through the action of biological agents".

How many syllables are in biodegrade?

biodegrade has 4 syllables: bi-o-de-grade. The stress falls on "o".

Is biodegrade a common word?

biodegrade is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.