catalyst — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process.

   Examples

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

2. Something that encourages progress or change.

   Synonyms

   stimulusstraw that stirs the drinksolicitor

   Antonyms

   inhibitordampener

   Examples

   (obsolete)

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

   More examples (7)

   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.

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

   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.

   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.

   The catalyst was the introduction of the Health & Safety at Work Act in 1974. While it applied to all workplaces, it gradually brought about a sea change in the attitude towards death and injury. Accidents were no longer accepted as 'inevitable'.

   The housing crisis is now a “catalyst” for anti-immigrant sentiment, an Irish parliamentary committee warned in November.

   Theorists of 18th- and 19th-century revolutions emphasized the importance of rising expectations as a catalyst.

3. An inciting incident that sets the successive conflict into motion.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   The current view by both Labour and Conservative politicians is that the state of the UK railway is unsustainable, and the pandemic acted as a catalyst in exposing its weaknesses.

4. A catalytic converter.

5. An object that facilitates the casting of a spell (such as a magic wand).

Noun

1. (chemistry) a substance that initiates or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected

   Synonyms

   accelerator

   Antonyms

   anticatalyst

   Broader terms

   activator

2. something that causes an important event to happen

   Broader terms

   causal agentcausecausal agency

   Examples

   the invasion acted as a catalyst to unite the country