English Reference

Word

wakame

/wɑˈkɑmeɪ/

Definition

n. a type of dark green seaweed that is often used in Japanese cooking. You will usually find it in miso soup or served as a cold salad.

n. an edible brown seaweed, Undaria pinnatifida, native to cold temperate coastal waters of the northwest Pacific. It is typically sold in dried form and reconstituted for use in soups and salads.

Examples

“I added some dried wakame to my miso soup.”

“The chef prepared a refreshing salad featuring wakame, sesame oil, and thinly sliced cucumbers.”

“While prized for its nutritional profile and delicate texture in East Asian cuisine, wakame is classified as a highly invasive species in several non-native marine ecosystems.”

Examples

simple

“I added some dried wakame to my miso soup.”

contextual

“The chef prepared a refreshing salad featuring wakame, sesame oil, and thinly sliced cucumbers.”

complex

“While prized for its nutritional profile and delicate texture in East Asian cuisine, wakame is classified as a highly invasive species in several non-native marine ecosystems.”

Usage

Typically treated as uncountable when referring to the food product, though countable when referring to individual plants in a biological context.

Real-World Examples

“He particularly enjoys wakame, which is soaked in ocean water, sun-dried, lightly grilled, and then infused into an ice cream base, providing a 'crisp, fresh, delicately green flavor.”
The New York Times · 11 Sept 2026
“When I arrived in Japan in the mid-1960s, one of my earliest encounters with Japanese food was a dish my mother-in-law would prepare late in the spring: tender takenoko (bamboo shoots) and newly harvested fronds of wakame (brown seaweed) simmered together in a smoky, soy-tinged broth.”
The Japan Times · 26 May 2024
“It is no coincidence that one of Europe's largest seaweed fields – 150 hectares of brown laminarians (royal kombu, dulse and wakame) cultivated by organic producer Algolesco next door to Le Guilvinec in Lesconil – grows in the middle of a marine nature reserve protected for its valuable species and habitats by the European Union's Natura 2000 network.”
BBC · 25 Feb 2022
“In Japan Wakame seaweed has been cultivated for centuries by sea farmers for human food - but offerings of it were made to the spirits of ancestors and even taxes were paid in seaweed.”
BBC · 18 May 2019

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 若布 (wakame).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Domains

BotanyCooking

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