cassava

[ kuh-sah-vuh ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

any of several tropical American plants belonging to the genus Manihot, of the spurge family, as M. esculenta bitter cassava and M. dulcis sweet cassava, cultivated for their tuberous roots, which yield important food products.
a nutritious starch from the roots, the source of tapioca.

cassava

/ kəˈsɑːvə /

Also calledmanioc any tropical euphorbiaceous plant of the genus Manihot, esp the widely cultivated American species M. esculenta (or utilissima ) ( bitter cassava ) and M. dulcis ( sweet cassava )
a starch derived from the root of this plant: an important food in the tropics and a source of tapioca

Origin of cassava¹

First recorded in 1545–55; from Spanish cazabe “cassava bread or meal,” from Taíno caçábi

Origin of cassava¹

C16: from Spanish cazabe cassava bread, from Taino caçábi

A quick turn at a small stand of banana palms and cassava plants led us to a clearing and, then, back centuries.

When a friend had potato greens for lunch, I traded her some of my cassava leaves.

Sometimes the attacks happen on their way to and from the market or their cassava fields.

Then, a fresh lot of cassava having been procured for the Indians, the journey was resumed.

It happened to be a season of exceptional drought, and cassava, and food of all kinds, were extremely scarce.

When a man of note dies his relations plant a field of cassava; just as the Nicobar Islanders plant a cocoa-nut tree.

They gave him some cassava bread and boiled fish, which he ate voraciously, and soon after left the hut.

It is the root of a shrub called Cassada, or Cassava Jatropha, and in its crude state is highly poisonous.

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