saponify

1. 1.

   become converted into soap by being hydrolized into an acid and alcohol as a result of being treated with an alkali

   “the oil saponified”

   Broaderchange

   chemistry

2. 2.

   convert into soap by hydrolizing an ester into an acid and alcohol as a result of treating it with an alkali

   “saponify oils and fats”

   Broaderchange

   chemistry

Other forms of saponify

past tense or participle

saponified

present participle

saponifying·

third person

saponifies·

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 saponify

What does saponify mean?

saponify means "become converted into soap by being hydrolized into an acid and alcohol as a result of being treated with an alkali". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in saponify?

saponify has 4 syllables: sa-po-ni-fy. The stress falls on "po".

Is saponify a common word?

saponify 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.