MEANING
1. A state of restless excitement, disorder, or rapid change, or the stirring up of that state.
2. To undergo or cause chemical change through microorganisms such as yeast or bacteria.
3. A substance or organism that brings about fermentation, especially in older technical usage.
Use it for
describing a society unsettled by competing ideas; showing an atmosphere charged with possible change; conveying turmoil without assuming that open violence has begunEvokes an atmosphere of unstable, energetic change while keeping the biological process and its active agent distinct. Writing functions: Atmosphere / Social Unrest.
Words that belong together
- intellectual ferment
- political ferment
- a period of ferment
On the page
The city was in ferment long before the first barricade appeared.
Beneath the committee’s orderly minutes, new ideas continued to ferment.
The neglected fruit had begun to ferment beneath the cellar steps.
The account notes that the drink fermented in sealed vessels before it was stored.
The brewing manual calls the yeast an active ferment.
Word forms
- Base
- ferment
- Past tense
- fermented
- Past participle
- fermented
- Present participle
- fermenting
Usage notes
Noun and verb. Noun stress usually FER-ment; verb stress usually fer-MENT. Verbal forms: ferments, fermented, fermented, fermenting; future will ferment. Social ferment usually uncountable; agents can be ferments. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.