Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Yeast |
YeastNoun1. A commercial leavening agent containing yeast cells; used to raise the dough in making bread and for fermenting beer or whiskey. 2. Any of various single-celled fungi that reproduce asexually by budding or division. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "yeast" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Food & Agriculture | Forms in beer fermentation vats. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | Fungi belonging to the ascomycetes, in which the usual and dominant growthform is unicellular. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Yeast are a group of unicellular fungi a few species of which are commonly used to leaven bread and ferment alcoholic beverages. Most yeasts belong to the division Ascomycota. A few yeasts, such as Candida albicans can cause infection in humans. More than one-thousand species of yeasts have been described. The most commonly used yeast is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which was domesticated for wine, bread and beer production thousands of years ago.
Yeast physiology can be either obligately aerobic or facultatively fermentative. There is no known obligately anaerobic yeast. In the absence of oxygen, fermentative yeasts produce their energy by converting sugars into carbon dioxide and ethanol (alcohol). In brewing, the ethanol is used, while in baking the carbon dioxide raises the bread and the ethanol evaporates.
An example with glucose as the substrate is
Yeasts for leavening bread may be produced commercially or caught from the environment. Many yeasts can be isolated from sugar-rich environmental samples. Some good examples include fruits and berries (such as grapes, apples or peaches), exudates from plants (such as plant saps or cacti). Some yeasts are found in association with insects.
The use of potatoes, water from potato boiling, eggs, or sugar in a bread dough accelerates the growth of yeasts. Salt and fats such as butter slow yeast growth down. A common medium used for the cultivation of yeasts is called potato dextrose agar (PDA) or potato dextrose broth. Potato extract is made by autoclaving cut-up potatoes with water for 5 to 10 minutes and then decanting off the broth. Dextrose (glucose) is then added (10 g/L), and the medium is sterilized by autoclaving.
Yeast fermentations comprise the oldest and largest application of microbial technology. They are used for beer and wine fermentations and bread production. Beer brewers classify yeasts as top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting. This distinction was introduced by the Dane Emil Christian Hansen.
Top-fermenting yeasts (so-called because they float to the top of the beer) can produce higher alcohol concentrations and prefer higher temperatures. An example is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, known to brewers as ale yeast. They produce fruitier, sweeter, real ale type beers. Bottom-fermenting yeasts ferment more sugars leaving a crisper taste and work well at low temperatures. Examples include Saccharomyces uvarum and Saccharomyces carlsbergensis. They are used in producing lager-type beers. Brewers of wheat beers often use varieties of Torulaspora delbrueckii.
Winemakers use a variety of different yeasts depending on the type of wine and the condition of the grapes. Too high a sugar or alcohol concentration slows the growth of yeast, so for very ripe grapes with lots of sugar he or she would use a yeast tolerant of those conditions. If the yeast dies before all the fermentable sugar has been converted to alcohol, the result is a "stuck" fermentation. Some yeast is chosen because it tends to develop certain aromas, such as the distinctive "banana" smells of Beaujolais from Georges DeBeouf. Wild yeast are naturally present on the skins of grapes, so grape juice will spontaneously ferment unless the wild yeast are arrested by cold temperature or sulphates. Depending on the strain of indigenous yeast, the result may be unpalatable or possibly more complex than if a single cultured strain were used. In general, natural yeasts are riskier than cultured, and tend to be used by tradition-oriented, Old World-style winemakers.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is also known as budding or baker's yeast. It is used as a model organism by biologists studying genetics and molecular biology (in particular the cell cycle) because it is easy to culture but as a eukaryote, it shares the complex internal cell structure of plants and animals.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae was the first eukaryotic genome that was completely sequenced. The yeast genome database [1] is highy annotated and remains a very important tool for developing basic knowledge about the function and organization of eukaryotic cell genetics and physiology. Another important S. cerevisiae database is maintained by the Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences [1].
Another important experimental model is Schizosaccharomyces pombe or fission yeast.
Fill in something more about wine and champagne yeasts?
Fill in something about bakers
Fill in something about petite/grande
Fill in something about Pasteur effect
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Yeast."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| YEME | English | Yeast extract malt extract | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonym: YeastSynonym: barm (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Bubble | Noun: bubble, foam, froth, head, spume, lather, suds, spray, surf, yeast, barm, spindrift. |
Levity | Leaven, ferment, barm, yeast. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Law and love are the same - romantic in concept but the actual practice can give you a yeast infection. (Ally McBeal; writing credit: Henri Vernes) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Flying Yeast (1929) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Illustration of asexual reproduction in ascomycetes: budding yeast (blastoconidia). Credit: CDC. |  | Oval budding yeast cells of Candida albicans. Fluorescent antibody stain. Credit: CDC. |
 | Histopathology of blastomycosis, lung of wolf. Yeast cells of Blastomyces dermatitidis. FA stain. Credit: CDC. |  | The medium consists of Yeast Extract, Cysteine, and Ferric Pyrophosphate with, or without the addition of D or L Tyrosine, or D or L Phenylalanine. Credit: CDC. |
 | Histiocyte containing numerous yeast cells of Histoplasma capsulatum. Tissue smear, Giemsa stain. Credit: CDC. |  | Smear from foot lesion of blastomycosis showing Blastomyces dermatitidis yeast cell undergoing broad-base budding. Credit: CDC. |
 | Nodular skin lesions of blastomycosis, one of which is a bullous lesion on top of a nodule. Aspiration of the bulla revealed yeast forms of Blastomyces dermatitidis. Credit: CDC. |  | Production. Industrial alcohol. These 40,000 gallon tanks in the fermenting room of a converted whiskey distillery produce industrial alcohol by the action of yeast upon cooked grain whose starches have been changed to sugars by the enzyme action of malt. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
The Talmud | These things are good in little measure and evil in large; yeast, salt, and hesitation. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | The richest natural source is yeast. (references) | |
All vaginitis is not caused by yeast. (references) | ||
Inhalation of airborne yeast cells and/or basidiospores. (references) | ||
Economic History | Kenya | Molasses, a by-product from sugar production, is processed into power alcohol, potable alcohol, and baker's yeast. (references) |
Trade | Poland | Tariff rate within quotas represent significant import protection for products such as beef, pork, poultry meat, wheat and rye flours, rapeseed oil, some processed food products, yeast, sauces, alcohol, tobacco, and tobacco products. (references) |
Sri Lanka | The Ministry of Health has announced the implementation of a ban on the import of Genetically Modified (GM) food products from September 1, 2001. The list of banned items would include, among others, GM soya bean products except for soya bean oil, corn and corn products, tomato and tomato products, cheese, potatoes, yeast, and micro-biological starter cultures. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Yeast" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 94.31% of the time. "Yeast" is used about 299 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 94.31% | 282 | 17,376 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 3.01% | 9 | 117,287 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.67% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Noun (proper) | 1% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 299 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "yeast" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Yeast | Last name | 200 | 38,786 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Country | Name |
| Japan | Oriental Yeast Co., Ltd. |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
Expressions using "yeast": alimentary yeast ♦ baker's yeast ♦ bakers' yeast ♦ brewer's yeast ♦ Compressed yeast ♦ food yeast ♦ Nutritional Yeast ♦ pressed yeast ♦ pure yeast cultures ♦ Red Yeast Rice ♦ seed yeast ♦ yeast artificial chromosome ♦ yeast cake ♦ yeast episomal vector ♦ Yeast Infection ♦ yeast plant ♦ yeast powder. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "yeast": Yeast-bitten, yeast-containing, yeast-free, yeast-like, yeast-rich, yeast-risen pastry. | |
Ending with "yeast": flour-yeast. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "yeast"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | tharm (acid, cause, ferment, leaven, principle, zyme), shkumë (fluff, foam, froth, scum, skim, spume), maja (crown, leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | خميرة (barm, enzyme, ferment, leaven, leavening, sourness), إختمر, رغوة (foam, froth, head, scum, spume, surf, work). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | ферментирам (ferment, heat, work), шупвам (effervesce), квас (ferment, kvass, leaven, sourdough), мая (leaven, lop). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 酵母 (leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | kvasnice (leaven), droždí. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | oelgaer, gaer. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | gist (leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | gisto, fermentilo (leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | ger. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | مخمر (Zymogenic), تخمیرشدن , خمیرترش (Leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | hiiva (yeasts). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | levure. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Hefe (leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | ζύμη (dough, ferment, mash, paste, pastry, zyme). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | שמרים (grounds, leavening), שאור (leaven, leavening, sourdough), קצף (fizz, foam, froth, frothiness, spume), סאור (leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | kovász (ferment, leaven, sourdough). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | ragi (baking-powder, barm, leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | lievito (ferment, leavening, sourdough). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 酵母 (leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | パン ね, "うぼ (leaven, public appeal, public contribution), "うじ (affairs after one's death, alley, bait, construction work, curious, decoy, edict, fortune, future affairs, good deed, government business, higher-order-, lane, leaven, lure, malt, meta-, mould used to make sake, mouth and ear, public announcement), イースト (east), じょうぼ (leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | jiastyn (barm, leaven), jastee (barm, leaven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mohawk | yohsherhatken. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | gjær. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | yeastay fermento (baker's yeast, barm, leaven, leavening). (various references) spumã de fermentaţie, ferment (enzyme, ferment, leaven), drojdie de bere (barm), drojdie (barm, draff, dregs, grounds, Lees, residue, scum, tailing), dospi (ferment, leaven), dospealã. (various references) humer. (various references) закваска (emptyings, ferment, leaven, sourdough), дрожжи (barm, ferment, leaven, yeasts). (various references) kvasac (barm, ferment, leaven, leavening). (various references) mbiriso. (various references) levadura (brewer's yeast, leaven, leavening). (various references) im-bilîso. (various references) jäst (leaven). (various references) maya (barm, ferment, leaven, maya, sourdough, yeast powder). (various references) закваска (barm, ferment, leaven, sourdough), дріжджі (barm, leaven). (various references) men rượu, men (glaze). (various references) burum (barm). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | fermenti, fermento, fermentum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "yeast": yeasted, yeastier, yeastiest, yeastily, yeastiness, yeastinesses, yeasting, yeasts, yeasty. (additional references) | |
| |
"Yeast" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: eyots, Ieast, Ieyasu, neast, uesat, veast, weast, yaaz, yaset, yast, yeac, yeafs, yeat, yeaut, yeaz, yeees, yeist, yeot, yesta, yeut, Yoash, yrast. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "yeast" (pronounced yē"st) |
| 3 | -ē" s t | beast, ceased, deceased, decreased, East, feast, fleeced, greased, increased, leased, least, ne, northeast, pieced, policed, priest, released, southeast. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-s-t-y" | |
-1 letter: ates, ayes, east, easy, eats, etas, eyas, sate, seat, seta, stay, stey, stye, teas, tyes, yeas. | |
-2 letters: ate, aye, ays, eat, eta, sae, sat, say, sea, set, sty, tae, tas, tea, tye, yea, yes, yet. | |
-3 letters: ae, as, at, ay, es, et, ta, ya, ye. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-s-t-y" | |
+1 letter: estray, gayest, lysate, mateys, mayest, safety, sayest, slatey, stagey, stayed, stayer, steady, steamy, sweaty, yarest, yeasts, yeasty, yentas. | |
+2 letters: acetyls, amnesty, astheny, barytes, beastly, betrays, ecstasy, estrays, estuary, eustacy, grayest, gyrates, lysates, majesty, mastery, satiety, sectary, shantey, stalely, stately, stayers, strayed, strayer, streaky, streamy, stylate, tawneys, teapoys, testacy, wastery, yatters, yeasted. | |
+3 letters: absently, acolytes, actressy, acylates, amethyst, ancestry, andesyte, anolytes, asperity, astutely, asyndeta, atemoyas, autolyse, basketry, bayonets, beltways, bestiary, chanteys, chastely, chayotes, clayiest, cyanates, cyanites, cytaster, daytimes, easterly, epinasty, epistasy, essayist, estrayed, eyestalk, festally, forestay, gateways, gayeties, getaways, headstay, heavyset, homestay, hyalites, hydrates, hysteria, kyanites, layettes, loyalest, masterly, mesnalty, overstay, partyers, payments, peytrals, phytanes, plastery, playlets, psaltery, scyphate, secantly, sedately, shanteys, staggery, statedly, steadily, stealthy, steamily, sternway, strategy, strayers, styraxes, sweatily, sybarite, syntaxes, taleysim, tapestry, tideways, travesty, trawleys, treasury, typebars, typecase, typecast, unsafety, unstayed, unsteady, vestally, vestiary, vilayets, wasteway, yachters, yeastier, yeastily, yeasting. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Names: Frequency 12. Names: Company Usage | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Abbreviations 18. Acronyms 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
