okra

UK/ˈɒkɹə/US/ˈoʊkɹə/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,547 of 15,258neutral

Okra is a green pod that thickens a stew as it cooks. Fry the okra, okra in gumbo, a bag of okra.

The thickening comes from a slippery substance in the pod that many people dislike, and cooking it fast and hot or with something acid keeps it in check. It is central to West African, Indian and southern American cooking, especially gumbo.

Definitions of okra

1nounokraA green pod that thickens a stew as it cooks.B2+
“Her grandmother's chicken stew always had okra, tomatoes and plenty of pepper.”

okra is a vegetable.

Where it comes from

From a West African language, probably Igbo okwuru, brought to the Americas through the slave trade.

ig
ọkwụrụ
English, today
okra

Built from

ŋkrakra · ak — broth

From an unknown West African language, probably ig ọkwụrụ but cf. ak nkruma and ŋkrakra (“broth”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Food & Drink

Practise this word

okra in the wild

Other ingredients may be added, such as onions, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, bell peppers, corned beef, salt pork, or okra.
Succotash
There is a variety of okra stews made in Middle Eastern, Balkan, North African, East African, Persian, and Central Asian cuisines and served as main courses.
Okra stew
Besides okra, they often include lamb, olive oil, and tomatoes.
Okra stew
English common English names include angled luffa, Chinese okra, dish cloth gourd, ridged gourd, sponge gourd, vegetable gourd, strainer vine, ribbed loofah, silky gourd, and silk gourd.
Luffa acutangula
The soup is prepared using the edible green seed pods of the okra flowering plant as a primary ingredient.
Okra soup

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.

← Vocabulary