sorrel
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A drink, consumed usually in the Caribbean around Christmas, made from the flowers of Hibiscus sabdariffa: hibiscus tea.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sawruhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɔɹəl
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
A drink, consumed especially in the Caribbean around Christmas, made from the flowers of Hibiscus sabdariffa: hibiscus tea.
Rumex acetosa (common sorrel, garden sorrel), sometimes used as a salad vegetable.
A brown colour, with a tint of red.
The roselle, Hibiscus sabdariffa.
adjective
Of a brown colour, with a tint of red. (especially: a sorrel horse)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A drink, consumed especially in the Caribbean around Christmas, made from the flowers of Hibiscus sabdariffa: hibiscus tea.
Used this way, sorrel is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
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.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Deciduous shrubby tree of eastern North America having deeply fissured bark and sprays of small fragrant white flowers and sour-tasting leaves.
Eurasian plant with heart-shaped trifoliate leaves and white purple-veined flowers.
Creeping much-branched mat-forming weed.
Low perennial with small silvery-green ovate to hastate leaves.
Low perennial with small silvery-green ovate to hastate leaves.
East Indian sparsely prickly annual herb or perennial subshrub widely cultivated for its fleshy calyxes used in tarts and jelly and for its bast fiber.
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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.