English

Noun

catalyst ‎(plural catalysts)

1. (chemistry) A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.
   • 1988, Lubert Stryer Biochemistry, 3rd edition, page 177

     Enzymes, the catalysts of biological systems, are remarkable molecular devices that determine the pattern of chemical transformations.

2. Someone or something that encourages progress or change.

   Economic development and integration are working as a catalyst for peace.

   • 1978, Ernest George Schwiebert, Trout, Volume 2

     It was a morning baptized by my first cup of coffee, freshly brewed over a gravel-bar fire, while they celebrated with the stronger catalyst of sour-mash whiskey in their fishing-vest cups.

   • 2004, Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East, page 76

     Israel's fear for the reactor—rather than Egypt's of it—was the greater catalyst for war.

   • 2006, The Freedom Writers, with Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them, Diary 74

     Rosa Parks was a true catalyst for change and she was only one person. Hearing about Rosa Parks and her protest showed me that there is hope for me and all the students in Ms. G's classes to truly be catalysts for change.

   • 2014 August 8, Rupert Christiansen, “The truth about falsettos [print version: 12 August 2014, p. R8]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review):

     He [countertenor Anthony Roth Constanzo] also enjoys being the catalyst whereby opera fertilises other art forms: recently, he's collaborated with Japanese kabuki actors, and a project with dancers from New York City Ballet is in the offing.

3. (literature) An inciting incident which that sets the successive conflict into motion.
4. (automotive) A catalytic converter.

Synonyms

• (Someone or something that encourages progress or change): stimulus, straw that stirs the drink

Antonyms

• (something that encourages change): inhibitor
• (something that enhances or accelerates): dampener

Derived terms

• catalyse, catalyze
• catalysis
• catalytic

Translations

See also

• enzyme