kimchi

American  

[kim-chee] / ˈkɪm tʃi /

Or kimchee

noun

1. Korean Cooking. a spicy pickled or fermented mixture containing cabbage, onions, and sometimes fish, variously seasoned, as with garlic, horseradish, red peppers, and ginger.

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Etymology

Origin of kimchi

First recorded in 1895–1900; from Korean kimch'i, hypercorrection of cimch'i, earlier timchoy, from Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese chén “steeped” + cày “vegetables”

Explanation

Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean side dish usually made of cabbage. Just about any meal you eat in Korea, or at a Korean restaurant, will be served with kimchi. There are hundreds of ways to make kimchi, using different vegetables and varying spice levels, but it is always slightly crunchy, with sweet, sour, spicy, and umami flavors. Fermentation is the most important element of kimchi, which is traditionally fermented in a clay vessel called an onggi. The Korean kimchi (or kimchee) derives from roots meaning "soaked vegetable."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

kimchi

The meals of hot dogs and tinned fruit were revelatory to children used to the flavorings of ginger and kimchi: “This was straight-up American food, wholesome, facile, and inert, and we adored it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

In 1982, Il Yeon Kwon, a Korean immigrant, realized that New Yorkers needed a reliable source for napa cabbage, the essential ingredient in kimchi, and opened a small grocery store in Queens.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

Recent years have seen natto join a series of fermented foods, from kimchi to kombucha, that have surged in popularity worldwide as Americans in particular seek better digestive health following the Covid-19 pandemic.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

At Cho and Park’s kitchen table, their pantry staples level up the spread: ssamjang, an umami-packed dipping sauce, and kimchi.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026

It is a large, white, carrot-shaped East Asian radish that is often made into kimchi, the spicy fermented condiment that is Korea’s most famous dish.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden