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parsley

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The leaves of this plant used in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pahrslee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpɑɹsli

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. uncountable

    The leaves of this plant used in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking.

  2. countableuncountable

    A bright green, biennial herb, Petroselinum crispum, having many cultivars.

  3. by extensionloosely

    Any herb resembling parsley, such as cilantro (Chinese parsley) or chervil (French parsley).

verb

  1. transitive

    To add parsley to.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The leaves of this plant used in Middle Eastern, European, and American cooking.

Used this way, parsley is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a food and cooking use: everyday in kitchens and recipes.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Cooking/food
  • Everyday conversation

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Annual / aromatic

parsley sauce

Leaves

leaf parsley

Unincorporated

parsley family

Other combinations

cow parsleyfresh parsleyparsley saltadd parsleycup parsley

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • parsley hawnounCompound term

    Southern United States hawthorn with pinnately lobed leaves.

  • parsley-leaved thornnounCompound term

    Southern United States hawthorn with pinnately lobed leaves.

  • beaked parsleynounCompound term

    Aromatic annual Old World herb cultivated for its finely divided and often curly leaves for use especially in soups and salads.

  • chinese parsleynounCompound term

    Old World herb with aromatic leaves and seed resembling parsley.

  • cow parsleynounCompound term

    Coarse erect biennial Old World herb introduced as a weed in eastern North America.

  • european parsley fernnounCompound term

    Fern of Europe and Asia Minor having short slender rhizome and densely tufted bright green fronds resembling parsley.

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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.