tapioca
/tæpiˈoʊkə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.62 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The cassava plant, Manihot esculenta, from which tapioca is derived; manioc.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Fish eyes and glue we used to call the half-cooked, large-grained, starchy tapioca without flavour that we were served every week in our residence at university. How I longed for the creamy pudding Mother used to make."
- "It happened when beverage aficionados learned that tapioca, the starch used to make the sweet, round, chewy black bubbles — or pearls — that are the featured topping in the popular boba tea drink, was in short supply."
- "When the entire coast-line becomes a sea of waving palms, with Chinese and Malay villages fringing the shores, which are at present mere barren wastes of mangroves, with plantations of pepper, of gambier, and of tapioca and rice, the Northern Territory, backed up by the unswerving energy of the Australian squatter, miner, and planter, will present a spectacle almost unknown in the scheme of British colonization."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
- Root: tapi'oka
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /tæpiˈoʊkə/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.