couscous

UK/ˈkʊs.kʊs/US/ˈkus.kus/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,119 of 15,258leans spoken

Couscous is tiny grains of steamed wheat from North Africa. A plate of couscous, steam the couscous, couscous and vegetables.

It is not a grain but a pasta: semolina rolled with water into tiny pellets. Traditionally it is steamed several times over the stew it is served with, which is a long way from the packet kind that is soaked in hot water for five minutes.

Definitions of couscous

1nouncouscousTiny grains of steamed wheat from North Africa.B2+
“We ate couscous with roasted vegetables and a spicy lamb stew.”

couscous is a food.

Where it comes from

Arabic kuskus comes from a Berber word, taken into English through French.

Arabic
كُسْكُس
French
couscous
English, today
couscous

Borrowed from French couscous, from Arabic كُسْكُس, from a ber language. First use appears c. 1593.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Food & Drink

Practise this word

couscous in the wild

In 2020, couscous was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
Couscous
While not in traditional Maghrebi couscous, it is often used in couscous royal in France.
Merguez
The French title of the film refers to a "grain of couscous" and to mullet, a type of small fish, both popular in Tunisian cuisine.
The Secret of the Grain
Of all the Algerian traditional dishes available, the most famous one is Algerian couscous, recognized as a national dish.
Algerian cuisine
Mesfouf, amekfoul or masfouf is an Algerian and Tunisian dish which is a variant of couscous with finely rolled semolina and butter or olive oil.
Mesfouf

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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