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barbecue

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A meal or event highlighted by food cooked in such an apparatus.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

bahrbihkyoo

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɑɹbɪkju

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Meat that has been barbecued or grilled in a highly seasoned sauce

  2. Meat, especially pork or beef, which has been cooked in such an apparatus (i.e. smoked over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels) and then chopped up or shredded.

  3. A meal or event highlighted by food cooked in such an apparatus.

  4. A fireplace or pit for grilling food, typically used outdoors and traditionally employing hot charcoal as the heating medium.

  5. A cookout in which food is cooked over an open fire; especially a whole animal carcass roasted on a spit

  6. A floor on which coffee beans are sun-dried.

verb

  1. transitiveintransitive

    To cook food on a barbecue; to smoke food over indirect heat from high-smoke fuels.

  2. transitiveintransitive

    To grill.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

More ways to use barbecue

  • “Let's barbecue that meat.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Meat / cookout

barbecue saucebarbecue grill

Other combinations

barbecue pitoutdoor barbecuebackyard barbecuegreat barbecuebarbecue areasome barbecue

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • barbecue pitnounCompound term

    A pit where wood or charcoal is burned to make a bed of hot coals suitable for barbecuing meat.

  • barbecue saucenounCompound term

    Spicy sweet and sour sauce usually based on catsup or chili sauce.

  • barbecued spareribsnounCompound term

    Baked or roasted with a spicy sauce.

  • barbecued wingnounCompound term

    Chicken wings cooked in barbecue sauce.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.