2 Answers

_A solvent is either a liquid or gas that takes into itself a solute (which can be in the state of a solid, liquid or gas) and creates a solution.
If we use a simple and easy example, we can get a handle on the idea. Take a glass of warm water, put a teaspoon of table salt in it, and stir it. The salt will dissolve in the water and "disappear" from view. The water is the solvent here, the salt is the solute in this example, and the resulting salt water is a solution that we created. It's that simple.
Wikipedia has more information, and a link is provided to their post on solvent.
A solvent is also the substance that dissolves the solute.

2_The solvent is the substance that the solute or solutes dissolve (disappear in solvent) in and it forms the bulk of the solution . In a suger solution, sugar is the solute and water is the solvent .

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_solvent#ixzz1wz6V19No

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