Solvent

A solvent is a substance that becomes a solution by dissolving a solid, liquid, or gaseous solute. A solvent is usually a liquid, but can also be a solid or gas. The most common solvent in everyday life is water.

Solvents help dissolve, suspend, or extract other materials, usually solids, without changing them chemically. That means they help in mixing things at a molecular level but don't participate in any chemical change of the substance dissolved.

For example, water acts as a solvent when sugar is poured into a glass of it. The sugar molecules get surrounded by water molecules and spread out in the glass, so it seems like the sugar has disappeared, but it’s really just mixed in very well. This process is known as dissolution. Water also acts as a solvent when it's used to clean food off a plate. The water molecules surround the food molecules and separates them from each other, causing the mass of food to dissolve. In both cases, water is breaking the physical bonds holding ions or molecules together, but the substances dispersed or dissolved in the water retain their chemical identity.