chard

IPA/tʃɑːd/
KK[tʃˈɑrd]IPA/tʃɑːrd/

chard — noun

  • chardsingular
  • chardsplural

1. a leafy vegetable grown for its wide, deep-green leaves and colourful stalks — t

1.nounB1
Definition

a leafy vegetable grown for its wide, deep-green leaves and colourful stalks — the leaves are cooked like spinach and the stalks like celery

Example

Amina stirred chopped chard leaves into the lentil soup for extra colour.

collocation: chard leaves (the leafy part)

Takeshi sautéed the red chard stalks with garlic and a little olive oil.

collocation: chard stalks (cooked separately from leaves)

Common collocations
  • chard leaves
  • chard stalks
  • rainbow chard
  • Swiss chard
  • baby chard
Synonyms
  • Swiss chard

    the full name; standard in UK and North American recipes and seed packets

  • silverbeet

    used in Australia and New Zealand; the everyday term there for the same vegetable

  • spinach beet

    an older name, still seen in traditional gardening books and heritage seed catalogues

Usage Note

Chard is usually uncountable — say 'some chard' or 'a bunch of chard', not 'a chard'. The stalks take longer to cook than the leaves, so cooks often separate them before preparing.

Common Mistakes

I bought a chard at the market.
I bought some chard at the market.
chard is uncountable, like spinach or lettuce.
You should only eat chard leaves.
You can eat both chard leaves and chard stalks.
the stalks are fully edible and often cooked separately.

Word family

  • Swiss chard
    nounB1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These four names all point to the same leafy vegetable, but where you live determines which one you will hear most often. Swiss chard is the standard term in the United Kingdom and North America — it appears on seed packets, in recipes, and at farmers' markets. Silverbeet dominates in Australia and New Zealand; if you are reading an Australian recipe or shopping at a supermarket in Sydney, this is the word you will see. Spinach beet and leaf beet are older names that occasionally appear in traditional gardening books and heritage seed catalogues. For learners, Swiss chard or simply chard is the safest choice for being understood internationally.

Swiss chardsilverbeetspinach beetleaf beet

Common collocations

Nouns

  • chard leaves
  • chard stalks
  • rainbow chard
  • Swiss chard
  • baby chard

Phrases

  • a bunch of chard
  • cook chard

Prepositions

  • chard with

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Chard comes from the French word carde, meaning the edible leaf-stalk of an artichoke or beet, which itself goes back to the Latin carduus (thistle). The 'Swiss' in Swiss chard was added by 19th-century seed catalogues as a marketing label to separate this leafy beet from other varieties — it has no special historical connection to Switzerland.