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  1. broccoli love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A vegetable (Brassica oleracea var. italica) in the mustard family, closely related to the cauliflower and having dense clusters of numerous green flower buds.
  2. n. The flower clusters of this plant, eaten as a vegetable before the flower buds open.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. One of the many varieties of the common cabbage (Brassica oleracea), in which the young inflorescence is contracted into a depressed fleshy edible head. It is closely similar to the cauliflower.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A plant, Brassica oleracea var. italica, of the cabbage family, Brassicaceae; especially, the tree-shaped flower and stalk that are eaten as a vegetable.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Bot.) A plant of the Cabbage species (Brassica oleracea) of many varieties, resembling the cauliflower. The “curd,” or flowering head, is the part used for food.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. plant with dense clusters of tight green flower buds
  2. n. branched green undeveloped flower heads

Etymologies

  1. 1699, Italian broccoli, plural of broccolo, diminutive of brocco ("shoot, sprout"), from whence also brocade. (Wiktionary)
  2. Italian, pl. of broccolo, flowering sprout of a turnip, diminutive of brocco, shoot, sprout, from Vulgar Latin *brocca, spike; see brocade. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. crucifer
  1. cruciferous plant
  1. cruciferous vegetable

same context (18)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. cauliflower
  2. spinach
  3. okra
  1. cabbage
  2. chives
  3. kale
  1. lentil
  2. beet
  3. chard
  1. sprout
  2. cucumber
  3. basil
  1. squash
  2. macaroni
  3. avocado
  1. tofu
  2. mushroom
  3. rhubarb

rhymes (1)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Shockley

reverse dictionary (19)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. rapini
  2. curd
  3. Brassica
  1. brassica
  2. crucifer
  3. flower head
  1. mustard family
  2. fasciation
  3. floret
  1. Calabrese
  2. sea cabbage
  3. cauliflower
  1. vegetable
  2. family brassicaceae
  3. family cruciferae
  1. brassicaceae
  2. cruciferae
  3. cruciferous vegetable
  1. kale

tags (6)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. gas
  1. wind
  1. flatulence
  1. flatus
  1. flatulent
  1. beano

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘broccoli’.

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Comments

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  • ruzuzu "2 days ago yarb said
    If Pynchon carks it tomorrow then I guess I am."

    *checks various news outlets*

    I haven't seen anything.... Oct 28, 2010

  • yarb If Pynchon carks it tomorrow then I guess I am. Oct 26, 2010

  • ruzuzu The octopus? Yarb, are you psychic? Oct 26, 2010

  • yarb It would be sort of a cross between "The Octopus" and "Vineland". Oct 25, 2010

  • fbharjo And the title should be something like "From Cabbage Fleurs to Sandchips." Oct 25, 2010

  • yarb I feel like someone should write a tragicomic novel about the incipient Californian broccoli industry. Oct 25, 2010

  • fbharjo Broccoli was first grown in the United States in Santa Clara, California. Before there was the Silicon Valley there was the Broccolian Valley. Oct 25, 2010

  • ruzuzu "The vegetable, of course, has been around for thousands of years, but in the United States it's been farmed commercially only since the 1920s, and the first advertising campaign on its behalf didn't occur until 1929—and even then, the ads were in Italian."

    --from "Drumstick Lipstick, explained!" (about Cole Porter's song "You're the Top") Oct 25, 2010

  • skipvia That would be aitch dubya. In 1990, dubya was probably too wasted to give a statement that coherent. Although, I guess he never reached that level even when he sobered up. Jul 25, 2009

  • yarb Dubya? Or aitch dubya? Great quote though. Jul 25, 2009

  • PossibleUnderscore "I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. Now look, this is the last statement I’m going to have on broccoli. There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington. My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself. So she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in."
    -March 1990 News Conference, George W. Bush Jul 25, 2009

  • qroqqa Related etymologically to 'broach' (q.v. for more detail), 'brooch', and 'broker'. Mar 6, 2009

  • reesetee Just teasing, bilby. I do like finocchio, though. And uva. Plural or singular. :-) Apr 18, 2008

  • Prolagus I'm thinking of uva (grapes), that is a singulare tantum. W H Y ‽ Apr 18, 2008

  • bilby I think Pro is alluding to finocchio.

    There may be other vegetable brethren in the infirmary. Apr 18, 2008

  • reesetee "It's not the only Italian vegetable with identity problems."

    Haha!

    *wondering about cauliflower* Apr 18, 2008

  • Prolagus A broccolo is a single broccoli head... but what the hell, I agree with you!
    ...and it's not the only Italian vegetable with identity problems. Apr 18, 2008

  • asativum But wait. I understand what a zucchina is. But what's a broccola? The veggie seems singularly fractal to me, tough to make singular.

    Broccoli always reminds me of the absurdly funny sketch on Saturday Night Live about an over-the-hill rocker singing "chopping broccoli" over and over again. Apr 18, 2008

  • bilby lol five, what a ripe comment! You need either elocution lessons or cookery classes, or both ;-)
    Apr 17, 2008

  • Prolagus Of course you can! And the same is for zucchina (s) and zucchine (pl), lasagna and lasagne... Berluscone and Berlusconi... no, not this one.

    ("Nobody is listing Berlusconi. Why don't you?"...
    ...I have my good reasons, thank you Wordie.) Apr 17, 2008

  • pterodactyl Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you say broccoli and broccolo, just as you can say spaghetti and spaghetto? Apr 17, 2008

  • plethora What an unpleasant image. Apr 17, 2008

  • five The word oozes out of my mouth in a process much similar to the regurgitation that occurs when I attempt to eat the vegetable. Apr 17, 2008

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‘broccoli’ has been looked up 2465 times, added to 19 lists, commented on 23 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.