Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An evergreen tropical American tree (Theobroma cacao) having leathery, ellipsoid, ten-ribbed fruits borne on the trunks and older branches. Also called chocolate tree.
- n. The seed of this plant, used in making chocolate, cocoa, and cocoa butter. Also called cacao bean, cocoa bean.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The chocolate-tree, Theobroma Cacao, natural order Sterculiaceæ. The cacao is a small evergreen tree, from 16 to 40 feet high when growing wild, a native of tropical America, and much cultivated there and to some extent in Asia and Africa. Its fruit is a somewhat pear-shaped pointed pod, 10-furrowed, from 5 to 10 inches long, and contains numerous large seeds embedded in a sweet pulp. These seeds are very nutritive, containing 50 per cent. of fat, are of an agreeable flavor, and are used, both in their fresh state and when dried, as an article of food. The seeds when roasted and divested of their husks and crushed are known as cocoa-nibs. These are ground into an oily paste, and mixed with sugar and flavoring matters, to make chocolate, the most important product of the cacao, (See
chocolate .) Cocoa consists of the nibs alone, either unground or ground, dried, and powdered, or of the crude paste dried in flakes. Broma consists of the dry powder of the seeds after a thorough expression of the oil. A decoction is also made from the husks alone, under the name of cocoa-shells. These substances, containing the alkaloid theobromine, analogous to thein and caffein, are very extensively used as substitutes for tea and coffee. The oil from the seeds, calledcacao-butter , is solid at ordinary temperatures, and has a pleasant odor and chocolate-like taste. It is used for suppositories, and for making soap, pomatums, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. A tree, Theobroma cacao, whose seed is used to make chocolate.
- n. This tree's seed, the cocoa bean
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A small evergreen tree (Theobroma Cacao) of South America and the West Indies. Its fruit contains an edible pulp, inclosing seeds about the size of an almond, from which cocoa, chocolate, and broma are prepared.
WordNet 3.0
- n. tropical American tree producing cacao beans
Etymologies
- Via Spanish, from Nahuatl cacahuatl. (Wiktionary)
- Spanish, from Nahuatl cacahuatl. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“a brief survey of the history of cocoa and chocolate, I shall begin with the growing of the cacao bean, and follow the _cacao_ in its career until it becomes the finished product ready for consumption.”
Cocoa and Chocolate Their History from Plantation to Consumer
“Vinson said chocolate was given the name cacao, meaning "food of the gods.”
“After dinner a small piece of cheesecake made with real cacao is just perfect.”
“(Only 5-10% of the world's cacao is good quality Criollo, or higher grade Trinitario, mostly single estate specialists.)”
“Frequently hand-ground, cacao is combined with almonds, cinnamon and other ingredients to make what is generally acknowledged as the best chocolate in Mexico.”
“Although high in cacao, it retains an almost milk chocolate richness that imparts a creamy mouthfeel.”
“I still haven't, ... architect, will make the place look like a walk-in cacao pod. i will soon probably also look like a walk-in cacao ... part as you will.”
“Among other beverages which have from time to time been produced from the cacao was a fermented drink much in vogue at the Mexican Court, to which it appears from the accounts of the conquest that Montezuma was addicted, as "after the hot dishes (300 in number) had been removed, every now and then was handed to him a golden pitcher filled with a kind of liquor made from cacao, which is very exciting.”
“In old manuscripts the word cacao is spelled in all manner of ways, but”
Cocoa and Chocolate Their History from Plantation to Consumer
“The Aztecs prepared it as a hot, frothy, non-sweet, beverage that they thought had obroma cacao, is Greek for "food of the gods.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cacao’.
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Chocolate Passion
Words related to my favorite addiction, chocolate!
chocolate, algarroba, alkali, bean, bittersweet, bloom, cacao, cocoa, tempering, cocoa powder, fermentation, pod and 50 more...
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Nahuatl
"Spanish náhuatl, from Nahuatl, that which pleases the ear, from nahua-, audible, intelligent, clear."
- etymology from The American Heritage Dictionary
Nahuatl, Zapotec, Aztec, avocado, guacamole, amole, atlatl, axolotl, black sapote, cacao, cacomistle, chayote and 77 more...
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Spices: How Exotic!
That extra something that makes the dish pop.
white pepper, wasabi, vanilla, turmeric, tonka bean, tamarind, sumac, star anise, St. John's bread, Sichuan pepper, sesame seed, sassafras and 70 more...
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Duplicated Openings
vivid, peperoni, popover, icicle, coconut, cacao, tatami, acacia, memento, memetics, dadaism, ululation and 8 more...
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zzyyxx's Words
plethora, drout, functional, rye, wring, doubt, cognative, weird, gnaw, surcease, rend, languish and 438 more...
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fabula's Words
fabulas, pasadizo, laberinto, amazónica, libritos, manzana, ilustración, ilustraciones, trazos, tiralíneas, eufenismo, cinemateca and 217 more...
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spoon
being items relating to food, cooking and the kitchen.
spoon, fork, beef, slice, dozen, eggs, simmer, broil, salad, soup, stock, lard and 287 more...
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The braggadocio recipe
A selection of English* words ending with a vowel (except "y", "ea", ie", "ee", "oo", "ea", "ou") that is REALLY pronounced.
My favorite English words, by the way.
The good twin of The ...braggadocio, recipe, encyclopedia, solo, gnu, flu, maybe, apocope, mini, arrhythmia, folio, stereo and 197 more...
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Trees!
mahogany, sequoia, balsa, sandalwood, tamarind, balsam, eucalyptus, birch, willow, buttonwood, evergreen, loblolly and 501 more...
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Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
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Flora and Fauna
poa annua, pooka, vole, bestiary, popple, turgor, starling, sharpy, copse, coreopsis, clove, corvid and 348 more...
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chocolatier
Words related to the arts of chocolate-making and chocolatiering.
couverture, terroir, mouthfeel, single-origin, presscake, cacao, chocolatier, trinitario, criollo-trinitario, criollo, arriba, forastero and 2 more...
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funny words
Words whose sounds amuse me, regardless of meaning.
spelunk, ink, galoshes, porpoise, globe, flue, turtle, frond, yggdrasil, iguana, noesis, elephant and 10 more...
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Aliisza's Words
peculiar, syndactyly, efficacy, transcendent, visceral, antagonist, plausible, velocity, seraphim, vanadium, autophobia, evanescent and 86 more...
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Chocolist
The chocolate family.
chocolate, cocoa, cacao, dark chocolate, white chocolate, semisweet, bittersweet, cocoa butter, milk chocolate, fudge, truffle, candy bar and 10 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cacao.

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