Ferment

Definitions: Ferment

Ferment

Noun

1. A state of agitation or turbulent change or development: "the political ferment produced a new leadership"; "social unrest".

2. A substance capable of bringing about fermentation.

3. A process in which an agent causes an organic substance to break down into simpler substances; especially, the anaerobic breakdown of sugar into alcohol.

4. A chemical phenomenon in which an organic molecule splits into simpler substances.

Verb

1. Cause to undergo fermentation; "We ferment the grapes for a very long time to achieve high alcohol content"; "The vintner worked the wine in big oak vats".

2. Go sour or spoil; "The milk has soured"; "The wine worked"; "The cream has turned--we have to throw it out".

Date "ferment" was first used: sometime in the mid-14th century. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Food & Agriculture	Term sometimes applied to a microorganism capable of bringing about a fermentation. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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
FERMENT	English	Foundation for European cooperation in Psychiatric Reform and cultural integration of Mental Health	Medicine
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Synonyms: Ferment

Synonyms: agitation (n), fermentation (n), fermenting (n), unrest (n), zymolysis (n), zymosis (n), sour (v), turn (v), work (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Bubble	Verb: bubble, boil, foam, froth, mantle, sparkle, guggle, gurgle; effervesce, ferment, fizzle.
Disorder	Turmoil; ferment; (agitation); to-do, trouble, pudder, pother, row, rumble, disturbance, hubbub, convulsion, tumult, uproar, revolution, riot, rumpus, stour, scramble, brawl, fracas, rhubarb, fight, free-for-all, row, ruction, rumpus, embroilment, melee, spill and pelt, rough and tumble; whirlwind; bear garden, Babel, Saturnalia, donnybrook, Donnybrook Fair, confusion worse confounded, most admired disorder, concordia discors; Bedlam, all hell broke loose; bull in a china shop; all the fat in the fire, diable a' quatre, Devil to pay; pretty kettle of fish; pretty piece of work, pretty piece of business.
Excitability	Trepidation, perturbation, ruffle, hurry, fuss, flurry; fluster, flutter; pother, stew, ferment; whirl; buck fever; hurry-skurry, thrill; (feeling); state of excitement, fever of excitement; transport.
Feeling	Blush, suffusion, flush; hectic; tingling, thrill, turn, shock; agitation; (irregular motion); quiver, heaving, flutter, flurry, fluster, twitter, tremor; throb, throbbing; pulsation, palpitation, panting; trepidation, perturbation; ruffle, hurry of spirits, pother, stew, ferment; state of excitement.
Levity	Leaven, ferment, barm, yeast.
Physical Energy	Activity, agitation, effervescence; ferment, fermentation; ebullition, splutter, perturbation, stir, bustle; voluntary energy; quicksilver.
Resentment	Excitement, irritation; warmth, bile, choler, ire, fume, pucker, dander, ferment, ebullition; towering passion, acharnement, angry mood, taking, pet, tiff, passion, fit, tantrums.
Uncleanness	Verb: be unclean, become unclean; Adjective:; rot, putrefy, ferment, fester, rankle, reek; stink; mold, molder; go bad; Adjective:
Violence	Verb: be -violent; Adjective: run high; ferment, effervesce; romp, rampage, go on a rampage; run wild, run amuck, run riot; break the peace; rush, tear; rush headlong, rush foremost; raise a storm, make a riot; rough house; riot, storm; wreak, bear down, ride roughshod, out Herod, Herod; spread like wildfire.
	Turmoil; (disorder); ferment; (agitation); storm, tempest, rough weather; squall; (wind); earthquake, volcano, thunderstorm.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Ferment

English words defined with "ferment": agitation ♦ Diastase, Diastasic ♦ Emulsin, Erythrozyme ♦ family Lactobacillaceae, family Lactobacteriaceae, family Saccharomycetaceae, ferment oils, fermentation, Fibrin factors, Fibrin ferment ♦ gastric juice, genus Saccharomyces ♦ Histozyme, Hydrolytic ferment ♦ Invertin ♦ Lactic ferment, Lactobacillaceae, Lactobacteriaceae ♦ Microzyme, Mowburn, Mycoderma, Myrosin ♦ Pancreatic juice, Peptonize, poi ♦ Quass ♦ Re-ferment, Rennet ferment ♦ Saccharomyces, Saccharomycetaceae, Steapsin, substrate, Synaptase ♦ Tryptone ♦ unrest, Urea ferment ♦ Wash back, work ♦ Zyme, Zymogenic, Zymophyte, Zymotic disease. (references)

Specialty definitions using "ferment": BROTH MIXER, broth setter ♦ CELLAR SUPERVISOR ♦ FERMENTER, WINE, flor yeasts ♦ kwas ♦ Lactose Factors ♦ MALT ♦ Pyruvate Decarboxylase. (references)

Etymologies containing "ferment": Gyle ♦ Zymosis, Zymotic. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Ferment" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Albanian (enzyme, ferment, zyme), Czech (enzyme), French (close, ferment), German (enzyme, ferment), Romanian (enzyme, ferment, leaven, yeast), Swedish (ferment), Turkish (enzyme).

Domain	Title
Books	China in Ferment Perspectives on the Cultural Revo (reference) Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future (reference) Religions of America: Ferment and Faith in an Age of Crisis: A New Guide and Almanac (reference) Religious Ferment in Modern India (reference) Social Ferment in India (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Ferment (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Trash left to ferment.Credit: Small World.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Date	Quotation
John Locke	1690	But it will be said, this hypothesis lays a ferment for frequent rebellion. (Second Treatise of Government)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Grapes of Wrath	Steinbeck, John	And the anger began to ferment.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Hungary	Fearing revolution, Moscow replaced Rakosi with his deputy, Erno Gero, in order to contain growing ideological and political ferment. (references)
	Moldova	The following wineries and tobacco companies are scheduled to be privatized: Aroma in Chisinau, Calarasi-Divin in Calarasi, Barza Alba in Balti, Vismos in Chisinau, Nis-Struguras in Nisporeni, and Tutun-CTC in Chisinau, Nord Tutun in Cupcini, Ferment Tutun in Drochia, Falesti, Floresti, Orhei, and Soldanesti. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Ferment" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 71.30% of the time. "Ferment" is used about 108 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)	71.3%	77	37,929
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	25%	27	66,962
Lexical Verb (base form)	3.7%	4	175,879
Total	100.00%	108	N/A

Expressions using "ferment": acetic ferment ♦ be in a ferment ♦ butyric ferment ♦ cause to ferment ♦ ferment oils ♦ Fermentation by an unorganized ferment ♦ Fibrin ferment ♦ Hydrolytic ferment ♦ Lactic ferment ♦ rennet ferment ♦ unorganized ferment or enzyme ♦ urea ferment. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "ferment": lab-ferment, Re-ferment.
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 "ferment"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		fermentoj, fermentohem, ferment (enzyme, zyme), tronditje (concussion, emotion, jar, thrill, throb, toss, trauma, tumult), thartoj (acetify, acidify, acidize, bake, make a wry face, sour, strain relations), tharmoj, tharmëtoj, tharm (acid, cause, leaven, principle, yeast, zyme), tharb (make sour), eksitohet, eksitim (excitement, frenzy, twitter). (various references)

Arabic		‏تخمر (fermenting, sour, sweat, working), ‏خميرة (barm, enzyme, leaven, leavening, sourness, yeast), ‏خمر (boose, booze, brew, inebriant, port, raise, red, sour, vintage, wine), ‏إهتياج (access, ado, agitation, bother, bustling, commotion, delirium, dither, ebullience, effervescence, excitation, exciting, fermentation, flurry, fuss, great rage, in a state, ramp, rampage, sensation, stir, willies), ‏إهتاج (be agitated, be excited, be nervous, be upset, boil, effervesce, flurry, flutter, fuss, seethe, simmer), ‏إحتمار, ‏أثار (aggravate, arouse, awaken, bestir, burn, chafe, elicit, engage, evoke, exacerbate, exalt, excite, fan, flurry, foment, fray, frazzle, fret, fuss, gall, get, gravel, gripe, heat, impassion, inflame, infuriate, inspire, instigate, irritate, itch, jog, jostle, kindle, madden, move, outrage, pique, remnant, rile, rouse, sour, stimulate, switch on, tease, thrill, touch off, transport, trigger, trouble, turn on, unsettle, urge, vex, whet, whip, work), ‏ثور (beef, bovine, bull, fire, heat, ox, ramp, rampage, rebel, revolt, revolutionize, rise, set against, steer, storm, take the bit in one's hands). (various references)

Bulgarian		ферментация (fermentation, working, zymosis), ферментирам (heat, work, yeast), фермент, квас (kvass, leaven, sourdough, yeast), кипя (boil, churn, effervesce, seethe, wallop, work), кипене (boil, boiling, ebullition, effervescence, effervescency, gurgitation), кипеж (ebullience, ebulliency, fermentation, storm), възбуждам (actuate, agitate, arouse, engage, enkindle, excite, heat, inflame, irritate, key up, pique, provoke, raise, set up, stimulate, sting, stir, thrill, turn on), вълнение (agitation, commotion, dither, emotion, excitement, flurry, gurgitation, heartbeat, lather, nervousness, perturbation, pother, pulse, roughness, snit, stir, surge, tear, throb, to-do, trouble, tumult, turmoil, unrest, upset), предизвиквам ферментация, подкваса (leaven). (various references)

Chinese		釀 (brew), 發酵 , 发酵 (fermentation, Fermentative, Fermented, Fermenting, leavened, leavening). (various references)

Czech		fermentace (fermentation, zymosis), podrobit kvašení, neklid (alarm, anxiety, discomfort, disquiet, inquietude, jactation, jactitation, malaise, uneasiness, unrest, worry), kvasit (rankle, work), kvas. (various references)

Danish		ferment, syrevaekker (lactic starter, starter, starter culture), gærstof, enzym (diastase, enzyme). (various references)

Dutch		werken (act, be effective, function, have effect, operate, panting, run, to work, twisting, vary, work, works), gisten (yeasts), fermenteren. (various references)

Esperanto		fermenti. (various references)

Finnish		fermentti. (various references)

French		ferment. (various references)

German		gären (brew, seethe, work), ferment (enzyme). (various references)

Greek		ζύμη (body, dough, leaven, mash, paste, pastry, starter, yeast, zyme). (various references)

Hebrew		מתסיס (enzyme, fermenting), לתסוס (bubble, fizz, foam, seethe, simmer, sparkle), ל�"תסיס (agitate, effervesce, excite), תסיס�" (agitation, effervescence, excitement, fermentation, fizz, turbulence, zymosis), תסס (enzyme, fizz, zyme), פרמ� ט, �"סת�" (agitation, incitement, sedition, seduction). (various references)

Hungarian		kovász (leaven, sourdough, yeast), erjedés (fermentation, yeast, zymosis). (various references)

Italian		fermento (barm, lactic starter, starter, starter culture, yeast), fermentare. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		熟成 (cure, mature, ripen). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		じゅくせい (cure, mature, private-school student, ripen). (various references)

Manx		gyle (fermentation), braghey (fermentation, fermentation of cereals, malt, malted). (various references)

Norwegian		gjæringsmiddel, gjære. (various references)

Pig Latin		ermentfay

Portuguese		fermento (baker's yeast, barm, lactic starter, leaven, leavening, starter, starter culture, yeast), fermentar (brew, heat, leaven, simmer, sour, sweat, to sour, yeast). (various references)

Romanian		fierbe (boil, bubble over, cook, effervesce, fizz, heat, poach, pot, rage, resound, roar, seethe, simmer, torment, torture), fi în clocot, fermentare (working), fermentaţie (commotion, ebullition, effervescence, effervescency, fermentation), fermenta (work), ferment (enzyme, leaven, yeast), stârni (arouse, cause, create, enkindle, excite, fan, generate, hunt out, incite, induce, invite, kick up, kindle, pander to, pique, quicken, remove, rouse, spring, start, stir, tickle), se frãmânta (fidget, flutter), se agita (agitate, billow, bustle, fluster, flutter, fret, fuss, hitch, rustle, seethe, squirm, toss, tumble, vibrate, wag), nelinişte (agitation, anxiety, apprehension, care, concern, discomfort, discomposure, disquiet, disquietude, disturbance, flurry, fret, inquietude, perturbation, restlessness, trouble, uneasiness, unrest, worry), efervescenţã (ebullience, effervescence, effervescency, tumult), dospi (leaven, yeast), agitaţie (ado, agitation, bustle, clutter, commotion, dusty, emotion, excitement, fermentation, fever, flurry, flutter, fret, go, haste, inquietude, nervousness, perturbation, restlessness, riotousness, roughness, squirm, stir, trepidation, unrest, vexation, working). (various references)

Russian		фермент (enzyme), возбуждение (ebullience, ebulliency, effervescence, effervescency, excitation, excitement, exhilaration, fermentation, field, flurry, fluster, fume, incitement, irritation, kick, thrill, twitter), закваска (emptyings, leaven, sourdough, yeast), бродить (divagate, maunder about, maunder along, moon, perambulate, peregrinate, ramble, range, roam, rove, roved, wander, wandered), дрожжи (barm, leaven, yeast, yeasts). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		vreti (boil, bubble, simmer), previrati, maja (barm, leavening, starter), kvasac (barm, leaven, leavening, yeast), dovesti do vrenja. (various references)

Spanish		fermento (lactic starter, starter, starter culture), fermentar (brew, raise, simmer, work). (various references)

Swedish		jäsämne, jäsa (work). (various references)

Thai		เชื้อหมัก, หมัก, ความปั่นป่วน. (various references)

Turkish		telaşlanmak (be alarmed, flap, fluster, get flurried, take on), telaş (ado, alarm, bustle, commotion, directness, discomposure, disturbance, excitement, fever, flap, flurry, flutter, fume, fuss, fussiness, haste, hastiness, helter-skelter, hurry, panic, precipitance, precipitancy, precipitateness, precipitation, pucker, racket, ruffle, rush, stir, storm, taking, tingle, tizzy, to-do, turmoil, whirl), tahrik etmek (agitate, egg, egg on, excite, fan, hound, hound on, incite, instigate, irritate, jockey into, move, provoke, rough the wrong way, rouse, seduce, solicit, stimulate, sting, stir up, turn on, whet, whip up, wind up, work up), mayalanmak (work), mayalanma (fermentation, leavening, working, zymosis), mayalandırmak, maya (barm, leaven, maya, sourdough, yeast, yeast powder), karışıklık (bedlam, bungle, cataclysm, chaos, clamor, clamour, clutter, commotion, complexity, complication, confusion, disarrangement, disorder, disorderliness, disorganization, disturbance, dogs dinner, embroilment, fermentation, fray, frenzy, fuss, fuss and kerfufle, grab bag, havoc, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, huddle, hugger mugger, huggermugger, hurly burly, imbroglio, indiscrimination, intricacy, involution, jungle, kerfufle, maziness, mess, mishmash, misrule, mix, mix up, muddle, muss, perturbation, pie, pother, pretty kettle of fish, promiscuity, Ravel, riot, rough and tumble, ruckus, ruction, snafu, snarl, snarl up, stir, swirl, tangle, topsyturvy, topsyturvydom, tumble, turbidity, turbulence, unrest, upheaval, upset, wooliness, woolliness), kışkırtmak (agitate, antagonize, defy, egg, egg on, excite, fan the flame, foment, ginger, ginger up, goad, goad on, hound, hound on, incite, inflame, instigate, jockey into, lash, prod, provoke, rouse, set on, solicit, sting, stir up, tempt, warm up, whip up), heyecanlandırmak (carry away, electrify, exalt, excite, flush, hot up, impassion, inebriate, key up, Spike, stir, stir up, sweep away, sweep off, thrill, tickle up, transport, turn on, unsettle, warm up, wind up, work up), heyecan (affect, agitation, animation, Ardor, ardour, bang, commotion, dither, drama, emotion, enthusiasm, exaltation, excitement, fermentation, fever, fire, flap, flurry, flush, flutter, furor, furore, glow, kick, pucker, razzle-dazzle, rhapsody, ruffle, sensation, shiver, spice, spring tide, stir, taking, tension, the shivers, thrill, tingle, twitter, vibes, vibration, wallop, warmth, yeast), ekşimek (acetify, be upset, Fox, go bad, go off, go sour, sour, turn, turn sour). (various references)

Turkmen		maяa (camel, leaven), gor (leaven), ajatmak (spoil). (various references)

Ukranian		хвилювати (affect, agitate, amove, appeal, commove, disturb, embroil, excite, fluster, inflame, perturbate, pother, reck, tempest, worry), фермент (enzyme), викликати бродіння, закваска (barm, leaven, sourdough, yeast). (various references)

Vietnamese		sự vận động sự xôn xao, sự náo động (excitement, fermentation, flurry, fluster, riot, tumultuousness, turmoil), men con men sự lên men sự khích động. (various references)

Welsh		gweithio (purge, work), eplesu (leaven), eples (leaven). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	fermentare, fermenti, fermento, fermentum. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "ferment": fermentable, fermentation, fermentations, fermentative, fermented, fermenter, fermenters, fermenting, fermentor, fermentors, ferments. (additional references)
	Words ending with "ferment": conferment, deferment, preferment. (additional references)
	Words containing "ferment": conferments, deferments, preferments, unfermented. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Ferment" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ermant, feren, ferent, ferket, ferme, fermen, Fermenta, fermet, Fermette, Fernet, Fertman, ferzent, fewment, firment, Firmont, forment, Fourment, fremen, Fremin, Fremund, furent, Herment, perment. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "ferment" (pronounced ferme"nt or fer"ment)
4	-m e" n t	augment, cement, Dement, lament, meant.
3	-e" n t	accent, ascent, assent, bent, Brent, cent, circumvent, consent, Dent, descent, discontent, dissent, event, extent, gent, indent, intent, invent, Kent, lent, malcontent, misrepresent, misspent, nonevent, occident, outspent, overspent, pent, percent, prevent, reinvent, relent, rent, repent, represent, resent, scent, sent, spent, tent, underwent, unspent, vent, went.
4	-m e n t	admonishment, Ament, comment, compliment, disfigurement, document, foment.
3	-e n t	content, portent, reorient.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-e-f-m-n-r-t"
	-2 letters: enter, meter, metre, remet, rente, retem, terne, treen.
	-3 letters: erne, feet, feme, fere, fern, fete, free, fret, meet, mere, mete, neem, reef, reft, rent, rete, teem, teen, term, tern, tree, tref.
	-4 letters: eft, eme, emf, ere, ern, fee, fem, fen, fer, fet, men, met, nee, net, ree, ref, rem, ret, tee, ten.
	-5 letters: ef.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-f-m-n-r-t"
	+1 letter: ferments, fomenter.
	+2 letters: deferment, fermented, fermenter, fermentor, fomenters.
	+3 letters: conferment, deferments, enserfment, fermenters, fermenting, fermentors, foretopmen, fragmented, freemartin, fromenties, frumenties, furmenties, manifester, preferment, refinement.
	+4 letters: conferments, deforcement, enforcement, enframement, engraftment, enserfments, fermentable, ferrimagnet, ferromagnet, fragmentate, fragmentize, freemartins, freneticism, manifesters, preferments, refinements, refrainment, refreshment, unfermented.
	+5 letters: amentiferous, deforcements, enforcements, enframements, engraftments, fermentation, fermentative, ferrimagnets, ferromagnets, fragmentated, fragmentates, fragmentized, fragmentizes, freneticisms, frontiersmen, imperfection, infringement, mifepristone, refrainments, refreshments.
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.