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Glite Dictionary
fulvic acid

fulvic acid

1 8.7
A yellow-brown substance in soil and water made when plants and animals decay
  • noun
  • /ˈfʌlvɪk ˈæsɪd/
  • Specialized
: ácido fúlvico
  • Preliminary findings suggest that rotenone or the humic and fulvic acid treatments can slightly reduce staining.
  • humic and fulvic acid

Examples

  • The instrument can separate and size proteins and their aggregates, liposomes, viral particles, polymer latex particles, humic and fulvic acids, and many other samples.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The active principle of fulvic acid is found in natural substances like shilajit.

  • We now know that fulvic acid is part of the earth's natural recycling process.

  • Many reports have been published on the beneficial use of humic substances, especially fulvic acid, for human health and medicine.

Surface Forms

fulvic acid singular
fulvic acids plural

Morphology

fulvic + acid

This is a technical chemical term where only one constituent ('acid') is a common word; 'fulvic' is not a transparent, productive adjective in general English (and is absent from the provided dictionary entry). The specific sense and properties of 'fulvic acid' require domain knowledge and cannot be derived from the surface parts by a B1 learner, so the expression is opaque.

Etymology

Fulvic acid comes from the Latin word 'fulvus', meaning yellow-brown, so fulvic points to the colour and acid shows it is a type of acid. So the name helps you remember that fulvic acid is a yellow-brown natural acid made when plants and animals break down in soil, and because it dissolves in water it helps move minerals around.