Chem. [f. prec. + -ITY. Cf. mod. Fr. alcalinité.] The quality of being alkaline; alkaline character or property.
1788. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXXVIII. 157. I am still inclined to think … that phlogiston is the principle of alkalinity, if such a term may be used.
1788. Cavendish, ibid. To discover how nice a test of alcalinity the paper tinged with blue flowers was.
1863. Watts, Dict. Chem. (1879), I. 120. Some of these [alkaloids] rival potash and soda in the degree of their alkalinity, while in others the existence of alkaline properties is barely perceptible.
