Alkali

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Alkali" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In chemistry, an alkali (/ˈælkəlaɪ/; from Arabic: القلوي, romanized: al-qaly, lit. 'ashes of the saltwort') is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0. The adjective alkaline, and less often, alkalescent, is commonly used in English as a synonym for basic, especially for bases soluble in water. This broad use of the term is likely to have come about because alkalis were the first bases known to obey the Arrhenius definition of a base, and they are still among the most common bases.