lettuce
Americannoun
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lettuces
plural
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a cultivated plant, Lactuca sativa, occurring in many varieties and having succulent leaves used for salads.
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any species of Lactuca.
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Slang. U.S. dollar bills; greenbacks.
noun
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any of various plants of the genus Lactuca, esp L. sativa, which is cultivated in many varieties for its large edible leaves: family Asteraceae (composites)
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the leaves of any of these varieties, which are eaten in salads
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any of various plants that resemble true lettuce, such as lamb's lettuce and sea lettuce
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lettuce
1250–1300; 1925–30 lettuce for def. 3; Middle English letuse, apparently < Old French laitues, plural of laitue < Latin lactūca a lettuce, perhaps derivative of lac, stem lact- milk, with termination as in erūca rocket 2 (or by association with Greek galaktoûchos having milk)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
About three-fourths of the water taken from it flows to farmland, about 5 million acres of it, producing alfalfa for cattle as well as lettuce, broccoli and other crops.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Taylor Farms, the produce company linked to the summer’s deadly cyclospora outbreak, is suspending sales of iceberg lettuce from central Mexico during the parasite’s peak season, the WSJ’s Jesse Newman reports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
“There is everything in the perfect bite,” Moore said of the vaunted marriage of ground beef, shredded cheese, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and rich sour cream in a corn shell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
The FDA said two samples tested positive for cyclospora, one from a tank containing wastewater from the processing facility and another from a drainage ditch at a lettuce grower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
On Saturdays and Sundays we continued working in the fields, picking carrots and thinning lettuce.
From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez
But imported lettuces are now likely to be on the shelves in the UK a couple of weeks earlier than usual.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Nowadays in the early mornings, farmers — many of them descendants of Xochimilco’s original inhabitants — can be seen loading canoes with lettuces and flowers grown in the rich sediments dredged from the canals.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
I always have a ton of bell peppers, chilies and lettuces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
This is the salad that the dressing needs to be properly so it's legitimately dispersed amongst the lettuces and croutons.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2023
They’d worked tending eggplants and lettuces in the camp garden.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
