yoghurt

IPA/jˈɒɡət/
IPA/jˈoʊɡɚt/

yoghurt — noun

1. A thick, creamy food with a slightly sharp taste, produced by adding live bacter

1.nounA2
Definition

A thick, creamy food with a slightly sharp taste, produced by adding live bacteria to milk and leaving it to ferment until it becomes solid.

Example

Quan had some yoghurt with fresh fruit for breakfast this morning.

collocation: yoghurt with [fruit]

Beatrix always buys plain yoghurt because she does not like sweet things.

Common collocations
  • plain yoghurt
  • Greek yoghurt
  • fruit yoghurt
  • a pot of yoghurt
  • live yoghurt
  • yoghurt with fruit
Synonyms
  • yogurt

    American English spelling of the same word

Grammar Patterns

a cup/pot of yoghurt

plain/natural/fruit yoghurt

Usage Note

Often uncountable when talking about the food in general (I eat yoghurt every morning), but countable when referring to individual containers or portions (I bought a yoghurt from the shop).

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four are dairy products, but each is used differently. Yoghurt is thick and slightly sour, made by fermenting milk with live bacteria — it is often eaten as a snack or breakfast food. Cream is the fatty part of milk, much thicker than yoghurt, with a rich but not sour taste; it is used in cooking or poured over desserts. Cheese is made by curdling milk and pressing the solids into a block — it is solid, savoury, and usually sliced or grated. Milk is a liquid, the base of all three others, and is drunk or added to cereal. For example: 'I had yoghurt with fruit for breakfast.' 'She put cream on her cake.' 'He cut a slice of cheese.' 'The child drank a glass of milk.'

yoghurt ↗cream ↗cheese ↗milk ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • a cup of yoghurt
  • a pot of yoghurt
  • plain yoghurt
  • fruit yoghurt

Prepositions

Etymology

TurkishEnglish

The word comes from Turkish 'yoğurt', which means 'thick milk'. It entered English in the early 17th century, brought back by travellers who had encountered the food in the Ottoman Empire. The spelling 'yoghurt' is the standard British form, while 'yogurt' is more common in American English.