onion

CEFRA2

/ˈʌn.jən/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A round vegetable with layers and a strong smell.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Any of various plants, mostly of the genus Allium, that are more or less similar to Allium cepa.

Examples

  • I only need one onion for this recipe.

  • I'll have tomato and onion.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • /ˈɪŋ.ən/
  • /ˈʌŋ.jɪn/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The bulb of such a plant.

  2. A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.

  3. Of a drug, an ounce.

More examples

In context

  • My eyes are stinging from the chopped onions.

  • Many onions are delicious; domesticated onions such as Allium cepa and Allium fistulosum are especially good, but even wild onions such as Allium canadense and Allium validum are nice in small doses.

  • dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] cook. glazed with a yellow substance; pome(s ~, sopes ~. […] 1381 Pegge Cook. Recipes p. 114: For to make Soupys dorry. Nym onyons […] Nym wyn […] toste wyte bred and do yt in dischis, and god Almande mylk.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The recipe called for a blank, which made her cry while cutting it.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion”), which had also been borrowed into Old English as yne, ynnelēac (“onion”) (> Middle English hynne-leac, henne-leac). Displaced the inherited term ramsons. * (soy): Stems from a 4chan word filter which changes the word soy to onions. The word filter was implemented in relation to the "alpha onion eater" meme, which is depicted as the direct opposite of the soy boy.