cassava

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a starch made by leaching and drying the root of the cassava plant; the source of tapioca; a staple food in the tropics
noun cassava root eaten as a staple food after drying and leaching; source of tapioca
noun any of several plants of the genus Manihot having fleshy roots yielding a nutritious starch

Borrowed from Spanish cazabe, from Taíno *kasabi (“cassava flour”) (whence Garifuna sibiba), from Proto-Arawak *sapi.

See Cassava, Fish, Fruit, etc. — The North-West Amazons: Notes of some months spent among cannibal tribes, Thomas Whiffen
In cultivating their little patches of bananas, breadfruit, cassava, and taro, however, they are pretty industrious. — Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania, Jewett C. (Jewett Castello) Gilson
I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians, in all that climate, make their bread of, but I could find none. — The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe

cassava starch, manioc, manioca

Type a word, a sentence, a book title, or a link to an English article. WordNet and the Classics answer.

Try

A library of classics · a vault of words · instant etymology & meaning