To ferment is to let food or drink sit so that tiny living organisms, like yeast or bacteria, change its sugars into acids or alcohol. This process can make foods last longer and taste stronger.
It comes from Latin “fermentare,” meaning “to leaven” or “to cause to rise,” from “fermentum,” which referred to yeast or leaven. The idea is that something invisible is working inside to transform the mixture.
Fermentation is behind bread, yogurt, cheese, soy sauce, kimchi, and even chocolate and coffee. Humans learned to control this invisible process thousands of years before they knew germs existed.
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