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🇨🇳Chinese Source WordCode: ZH

催化

Pronunciation / Transliteration: cuīhuà

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Catalyze/ˈkæt.əl.aɪz/
verbCEFR C1 (Advanced)Top #12500 frequency
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🇨🇳 Example Sentence in Chinese:

"这项新协议有助于催化地区的经济发展。"

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As verb
  1. 1

    To cause or accelerate a process or action by acting as a catalyst.

    "The inspiring speech helped to catalyze widespread community involvement in the project."
  2. 2

    To modify, especially to increase, the rate of a chemical reaction using a catalyst.

    "Platinum is commonly used to catalyze the conversion of harmful exhaust gases in automobiles."
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Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Coined in the 19th century, the term derives from the Neo-Latin 'catalysis', which stems from the Greek 'katalysis' meaning 'dissolution' or 'down-breaking'. It was formed by combining the prefix 'kata-' (down) and 'lysis' (loosening), eventually adapting into an English verb to describe chemical acceleration before expanding metaphorically into general action-spurring contexts.

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