sweet potato

sweet potato — noun

1. a long root vegetable with pink, orange, or purple skin and soft yellow or orang

1.nounA2
Definition

a long root vegetable with pink, orange, or purple skin and soft yellow or orange flesh that tastes naturally sweet; often roasted, baked, mashed, or used in soups and desserts

Example

Valentina baked two sweet potatoes in the oven for forty minutes.

baked sweet potato cooking method

The street vendor in Taipei roasted sweet potatoes over hot coals.

roasted sweet potatoes as a street food

Common collocations
  • baked sweet potato
  • roasted sweet potato
  • mashed sweet potato
  • sweet potato fries
  • sweet potato pie
Synonyms
  • yam

    in US English the two names are often mixed up, but a true yam is a different, drier, starchier root vegetable from Africa and Asia

  • kumara

    New Zealand English term for the same root; common in supermarkets and restaurants there

Grammar Patterns

a sweet potato

sweet potatoes

roasted/baked/mashed sweet potato

Usage Note

Often confused with yams in everyday speech, especially in the United States; in most countries, what supermarkets label as 'yam' is actually a sweet potato variety. The plant itself is the climbing vine Ipomoea batatas, but the word 'sweet potato' usually refers to the edible root rather than the whole plant.

Common Mistakes

Sweet potato is a kind of potato.
Sweet potato looks like a potato but is a different plant.
Despite the name, it is not related to the ordinary potato; they belong to different plant families.

2. an ocarina; a small wind instrument shaped a bit like an egg or a sweet potato,

2.nounC1
Definition

an ocarina; a small wind instrument shaped a bit like an egg or a sweet potato, with finger holes and a mouthpiece, that makes a soft, hollow sound

Example

Christopher pulled a clay sweet potato from his jacket and played a folk tune.

informal name for an ocarina

At the campfire, Talia taught the children to blow into a small sweet potato.

play a sweet potato + blow into it

Common collocations
  • play a sweet potato
  • clay sweet potato
  • small sweet potato
Synonyms
  • ocarina

    the standard, formal name; used in music classes, sheet music, and shops

Grammar Patterns

play a/the sweet potato

Usage Note

This is informal, mostly older American slang and now uncommon; the standard word is 'ocarina'. The name comes from the instrument's egg-like, sweet-potato-like shape. Use this sense only in casual contexts; in writing or formal speech, prefer 'ocarina'.

Common Mistakes

I play the sweet potato in the school orchestra.
I play the ocarina in the school orchestra.
In formal or musical contexts, 'ocarina' is the standard name; 'sweet potato' for the instrument is dated, informal slang.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These names often get mixed up in shops and recipes, but each refers to a different root. 'Sweet potato' is the long, smooth root with pink, orange, or purple skin and soft, naturally sweet flesh; it grows on a climbing vine. 'Yam' is, strictly, a much larger, rough-skinned, drier root common in West African and Caribbean cooking. In US supermarkets, however, orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are very often labelled 'yams', so the words are practically swapped in everyday American English. 'Kumara' is the New Zealand English word for the same plant as 'sweet potato' — you would see it on a café menu in Auckland but not in London. 'Potato' (without 'sweet') refers to the ordinary white or yellow tuber from a different plant family; it is starchier and not naturally sweet. If a recipe calls for one, do not swap freely.

sweet potato ↗yam ↗kumara ↗potato ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • sweet potato pie
  • sweet potato fries
  • sweet potato soup
  • sweet potato casserole
  • sweet potato vine

Phrases

  • a baked sweet potato
  • a roasted sweet potato
  • a slice of sweet potato

Prepositions

  • with sweet potato
  • of sweet potato

Etymology

TaínoSpanishEnglish

The name was formed in English in the late 1500s by joining 'sweet' (because the root tastes naturally sweet) with 'potato', a word newly borrowed from Spanish 'patata', itself adapted from Taíno 'batata'. Spanish and Portuguese sailors brought the plant out of the Caribbean and northern South America to Europe in the 1500s, and English speakers added 'sweet' to tell it apart from the white potato that arrived later from the Andes. The botanical name Ipomoea batatas preserves the original Taíno form.