Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A beady starch obtained from the root of the cassava, used for puddings and as a thickening agent in cooking.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A farinaceous substance prepared from cassava by drying it while moist upon hot plates. By this treatment the starch grains swell, many of them burst, and the whole agglomerates in small irregular masses or lumps. In boiling water it swells up and forms a viscous jelly-like mass. Tapioca forms a nutritious and delicate food suited to invalids. Tapioca-meal, or Brazilian arrowroot, is the same substance dried without heating. See
cassava (with cut).
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A coarsely granular substance obtained by heating, and thus partly changing, the moistened starch obtained from the roots of the cassava. It is much used in puddings and as a thickening for soups. See cassava.
WordNet 3.0
- n. granular preparation of cassava starch used to thicken especially puddings
Etymologies
- From Portuguese tapioca. (Wiktionary)
- Portuguese, from Tupi typióca : ty, juice + pyá, heart + oca, to remove. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I feel like I am spinning my wheels in tapioca here.”
“Darlac Province, about a day's walk from Ban Me Thuot, and were held in cages where they had nothing to eat but boiled manioc (a large starchy root from which tapioca is made).”
“Although little used by the natives, tapioca is also abundant here.”
Insulinde: Experiences of a Naturalist's Wife in the Eastern Archipelago
“At the large Chinese village of Rassa, a clever little Sumatra pony met us; and after passing through some roughish clearings, on which tapioca is being planted, we arrived here at 4 P.M., having traveled sixty miles in thirty-three hours.”
“It is also available online from Bob’s Red Mill, where it is called tapioca flour, at www.bobsredmill.com.”
“Does anyone know if the tapioca is the pudding or the root?”
“Sabudana" or "Sago", also known as tapioca, is produced from pith of Metroxylon and other palms, looks like semi-white unglazed pearls, and is a major ingredient for meals cooked during times of fasting.”
“So, I opted for inexpensive tapioca starch also known as tapioca flour, and agar powder, which is easier to work with than the flakes.”
“Cassava, aka tapioca or yucca, could do the trick — I find this root in Mexican markets.”
“From the roots of the latter, the starch called tapioca is derived.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tapioca’.
-
IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
-
food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
Fun Food Names
spaghettini, mutton, bratwurst, zabaglione, sweet potato pie, succotash, slumgullion, bouillabaisse, hush puppy, gumbo, jambalaya, mahimahi and 126 more...
-
Foodie
As much fun to say as they are to eat.
blueberry, cider, almond, apricot, asparagus, banana, fudge, foldover, flapjacks, filbert, fig, biscuit and 217 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (T)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
tabard, tadpole, taffeta, taffy, talisman, tallgrass, tam, tamarind, tamarack, tambourine, tango, tansy and 144 more...
-
Professional Scrabble Lexicon (TWL)
A myriad of game-changing words every Scrabble addict must have in his arsenal.
Keep in mind that these are all tried-and-true feasibly playable words selected for their handiness, i.e...paragon, pignora, ganef, suttee, origan, ohia, aioli, abasement, lehr, mho, tallow, harelike and 843 more...
-
Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
-
Gaw
Words for things both tangible and anthropic. I'm in the process of spinning off hardware into ute, and people into oofy.
cum-twang, naumachia, yngling, juggernaught, bliss ninny, iliac crest, moistened bint, slumlord, spondoolies, classy lady, charnel house, electrodoméstico and 334 more...
-
Favorite Words of AWP13
We asked attendees who visited the Wordnik booth what their favorite words were, and these are what they told us. (AWP is an annual conference for writers and those in the writing world.)
cling, declivity, susurrus, caramel, cataract, please, fester, reverie, kerplunk!, defenestration, colonel, ocean and 174 more...
-
sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
-
cooked words
cook, cuisine, kitchen, quittor, apricot, precocious, biscotto, biscuit, charcuterie, concoct, decoct, ricotta and 89 more...
-
Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
-
Food
.
spaghetti, yogurt, muesli, rarebit, wheat, cream, cheese, pumpkin, custard, couscous, oats, sausage and 237 more...
-
Spod's Words
corpulent, squidge, squiffy, sinuosity, ebullient, finger, penetrate, stimulate, recalcitrant, recidivist, dunnock, rococo and 152 more...
-
Eating Words
eat, fret, frass, etch, ort, edacious, edible, escarole, esculent, esurient, comedo, comestible and 49 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tapioca.
dain A very memorable word to those that have seen the Tapioca moment on "Whose Line is it Anyway". Mar 14, 2007