turmeric
- 1A bright yellow powder made from a dried plant root, used to flavor and color food.
Like a yellow coloring powder that also adds taste to your food.
Add a spoon of turmeric to give the rice a golden color.
She stirred turmeric into the soup for extra flavor.
Note
- 2A leafy tropical plant from India whose underground stems give us a yellow spice.
Like ginger, it grows from a fat root hidden under the soil.
Farmers in southern India grow turmeric in warm, wet fields.
The turmeric in her garden produced thick, knobby roots.
Note
- 3A yellow to reddish-brown coloring taken from the turmeric plant, used to dye things.
Like dipping cloth into colored water so it comes out yellow.
They used turmeric to dye the cloth a warm yellow.
A little turmeric can stain your fingers bright orange.
Note
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of turmeric apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English turmeryte. Its origin is not certain. It may come from Arabic kurkum or from Old French terre mérite, meaning 'deserving earth.'