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whey

UK/hweɪ/US/hweɪ/
nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,316 of 15,258neutral

Whey is the watery part left when milk curdles. Curds and whey, drain the whey, whey protein.

It was a waste product of cheesemaking for centuries and is now sold as protein powder, which is a complete reversal of its value. Little Miss Muffet was eating curds and whey, which is roughly cottage cheese.

AVRS · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of whey

  1. 1nounwheyThe watery part left when milk curdles.B2+

    “When making cheese, you strain the curds and pour away the whey.”

whey is a liquid.

Where it comes from

Old English hwaeg names the liquid, from a West Germanic root.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *kʷey- — to pile up, build

  2. Proto-West Germanic

    *hwaij — whey

  3. Old English

    hwǣġ

  4. Middle English

    whey

  5. English, today

    whey

Built from

  • hweġ · Old English — whey

From Middle English whey, wheye, whei, from Old English hwǣġ, hwæiġ, hwæġ, hweġ (“whey”), from Proto-West Germanic hwaij (“whey”) (cognate with stq Waai, Woaie, West Frisian waai, Dutch wei, Low German Wei, German Low German Wei), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European kʷey- (“to pile up, build”) (compare cu чинъ (“order”), Ancient Greek ποιέω (“to pile up, make”), Sanskrit कय (“every one”)).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

whey in the wild

  • Sweet whey is a byproduct of the making of rennet types of hard cheese, like cheddar or Swiss cheese.

    Whey

  • Acid whey (also known as sour whey) is a byproduct of the making of acidic dairy products such as strained yogurt.

    Whey

  • The remaining liquid, which contains only whey proteins, is the whey.

    Curd

  • Brunost is a common Norwegian name for mysost, a family of soft cheese-related foods made with whey, milk, and/or cream.

    Brunost

  • Mizithra or myzithra is a Greek whey cheese or mixed milk-whey cheese from sheep or goats, or both.

    Mizithra

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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.