Hydrolysis

Cleavage of chemical bonds by the addition of water

Hydrolysis (from Ancient Greek hydro- 'water' and lysis 'to unbind') is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution and elimination reactions in which water is the nucleophile. Biological hydrolysis is the cleavage of biomolecules where a water molecule is consumed to effect the separation of a larger molecule into component parts.

From Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA. More on occurri.