Word
fennel
Phoneticsfen·nel
US/ˈfɛnəɫ/
UK/fˈɛnəl/
Definitions
01the vegetable bulb
n. the thick, white base of the fennel plant that you can slice and eat in salads or cook as a vegetable.
n. the edible bulbous base of the fennel plant, often treated as a vegetable in culinary contexts. Uncountable when referring to the food generally; countable when referring to individual bulbs.
“I sliced the fennel thinly and tossed it with lemon juice and olive oil.”
“The chef recommended braising the fennel bulbs slowly in white wine to soften their fibrous texture and mellow the anise-like flavour.”
Synonyms
02the herb or spice
n. the feathery green leaves or the small dried seeds of the plant, used to add flavour to food.
n. the aromatic leaves (herb) or dried fruits (spice) of the fennel plant, characterised by a high concentration of anethole. Typically uncountable.
“The recipe calls for a teaspoon of toasted fennel seeds to flavour the bread.”
“Garnish the grilled sea bass with fresh fennel fronds to enhance the herbal notes of the dish.”
Synonyms
Real-World Examples
“Use a mandoline, if you have one, to cut the fennel: you want it really nice and thin.” Etymology
From the Middle English fenel, from the late Old English finuðl, finule (weak feminine forms); fenol, finul (masculine forms), from Proto-West Germanic fenukl, from the Vulgar Latin fēnuclum, fēnoclum, from Late Latin fēnuculum, from the Classical Latin faeniculum, a diminutive form of faenum (“hay”); compare the Italian finocchio, the Occitan fenolh, the French fenouil, and the Spanish hinojo. Doublet of finocchio and finook.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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englishreference.com/q/fennel