shea butter
/ˈʃeɪ ˌbʌtɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.34 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A slightly yellowish or ivory-colored natural fat extracted from fruit of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) by crushing and boiling, widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer and an emollient, as a cooking oil in West Africa, and sometimes used in the chocolate industry as a substitute for cocoa butter.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "About two o'clock in the afternoon, a sort of hasty pudding, with a little Shea butter, is the common meal; but the supper constitutes the principal repast, and is seldom ready before midnight."
- "Shea butter is sold by hundreds of small firms who package and reformulate the butter under their own labels, purporting to by-pass the depersonalizing tendencies of mass-production and mass-marketing. […]"
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃeɪ ˌbʌtɚ/