Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fer·men·ta·tion       (fûr'mən-tā'shən, -měn-)  Pronunciation Key  n.   The anaerobic conversion of sugar to carbon dioxide and alcohol by yeast. Any of a group of chemical reactions induced by living or nonliving ferments that split complex organic compounds into relatively simple substances. Unrest; agitation.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

fermentation
noun
1.	a state of agitation or turbulent change or development; "the political ferment produced new leadership"; "social unrest" [syn: agitation]
2.	a process in which an agent causes an organic substance to break down into simpler substances; especially, the anaerobic breakdown of sugar into alcohol [syn: zymosis]

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

fermentation       (fûr'měn-tā'shən)  Pronunciation Key  The process by which complex organic compounds, such as glucose, are broken down by the action of enzymes into simpler compounds without the use of oxygen. Fermentation results in the production of energy in the form of two ATP molecules, and produces less energy than the aerobic process of cellular respiration. The other end products of fermentation differ depending on the organism. In many bacteria, fungi, protists, and animals cells (notably muscle cells in the body), fermentation produces lactic acid and lactate, carbon dioxide, and water. In yeast and most plant cells, fermentation produces ethyl alcohol, carbon dioxide, and water.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
fermentation

A chemical reaction in which sugars are broken down into smaller molecules that can be used in living systems. Alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, and whiskey, are made from the controlled use of fermentation. Fermentation is an anaerobic process.

[Chapter:] Life Sciences

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Fermentation

Fer"ment\, n. [L. fermentum ferment (in senses 1 & 2), perh. for fervimentum, fr. fervere to be boiling hot, boil, ferment: cf. F. ferment. Cf. 1st Barm, Fervent.]

1. That which causes fermentation, as yeast, barm, or fermenting beer.

Note: Ferments are of two kinds: (a) Formed or organized ferments. (b) Unorganized or structureless ferments. The latter are also called soluble or chemical ferments, and enzymes. Ferments of the first class are as a rule simple microscopic vegetable organisms, and the fermentations which they engender are due to their growth and development; as, the acetic ferment, the butyric ferment, etc. See Fermentation. Ferments of the second class, on the other hand, are chemical substances, as a rule soluble in glycerin and precipitated by alcohol. In action they are catalytic and, mainly, hydrolytic. Good examples are pepsin of the dastric juice, ptyalin of the salvia, and disease of malt.

2. Intestine motion; heat; tumult; agitation.

Subdue and cool the ferment of desire. --Rogers.

the nation is in a ferment. --Walpole.

3. A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation. [R.]

Down to the lowest lees the ferment ran. --Thomson.

ferment oils, volatile oils produced by the fermentation of plants, and not originally contained in them. These were the quintessences of the alchenists. --Ure.