onion
noun
Simple meaning
Bulbous plant having hollow leaves cultivated worldwide for its rounded edible bulb.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnyuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʌnjən
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Bulbous plant having hollow leaves cultivated worldwide for its rounded edible bulb
The bulb of such a plant.
The bulb of an onion plant
A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.
4chan slangslang
Soy, particularly when used in compound words related to the soy boy stereotype.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Bagel flavored with onion.
Bread containing finely minced onions.
Butter blended with minced onion.
A dome that is shaped like a bulb.
Injurious to onion plants and sometimes tobacco.
Fungus causing a downy mildew on onions.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: bulbous plant having hollow leaves cultivated worldwide for its rounded edible bulb
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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.