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curry

UK/ˈkʌ.ɹi/<aa:<<RP>>; <<US,non-hurry-furry>>>US/kɝ.i/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,340 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: curries, currys

A curry is the spicy sauce dish of India, eaten with rice. Make a curry, a hot curry, curry and rice.

The word is British rather than Indian — no single dish is called that in India, where the names are regional and specific — and it came from a Tamil word for a sauce. Chicken tikka masala was probably invented in Britain. To curry favour is an unrelated word.

Francesc Fort · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of curry

  1. 1nouncurryA spiced Indian sauce dish eaten with rice.B1+

    “We ordered a hot chicken curry with rice and naan bread.”

curry is a dish.

Where it comes from

From Tamil kari, a sauce or relish, taken up in English by 1747. The Middle English cury, cooking, is a different word.

  1. Latin

    coquō

  2. Vulgar Latin

    cocere

  3. Middle French

    cuyre — to cook

  4. Middle English

    cury — cooking

  5. Tamil

    கறி

  6. English, today

    curry

1747 (as currey, first published recipe for the dish in English), from Tamil கறி, influenced by existing Middle English cury (“cooking”), from Middle French cuyre (“to cook”) (whence also cuisine), from Vulgar Latin cocere, from Latin coquō. Earlier cury found in 1390 cookbook Forme of Cury (Forms of Cooking) by court chefs of Richard II of England.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Food & Drink

Practise this word

curry in the wild

  • Further exchanges around the world made curry a fully international dish.

    Curry

  • Many types of curry exist in different countries.

    Curry

  • Butter chicken or murgh makhani is a curry made from chicken cooked in a spiced tomato and butter-based (makhani) gravy.

    Butter chicken

  • Japanese curry is commonly served in three main forms: curry rice (curry over white rice), curry udon (curry over thick noodles), and curry bread (a curry-filled pastry).

    Japanese curry

  • The very common curry rice dish is most often referred to simply as curry.

    Japanese curry

1 / 2

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.

Related words

the coquō family

kitchen

curry — used about once every 1,358 pages · #5,340 · point at the bar for the others

  • currycomb