soy sauce

American  

[soi saws] / ˈsɔɪ ˌsɔs /

especially British, soya sauce

noun

1. a salty, fermented sauce prepared from soybeans, used in East Asian cuisine.

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soy sauce British  

/ sɔɪ /

noun

1. Also called: soya sauce.  a salty dark brown sauce made from fermented soya beans, used esp in Japanese and Chinese cookery

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Etymology

Origin of soy sauce

First recorded in 1785–95

Example Sentences

From there, the whole thing gets nudged further into depth with oregano, paprika and, perhaps unexpectedly, soy sauce.

From Salon • May 19, 2026

A household name in Japan, Calbee is known for its savoury potato chips with an array of flavours from seaweed salt to soy sauce and butter.

From Barron's • May 12, 2026

Add a few cool slices of avocado and a drizzle of soy sauce and suddenly the whole thing feels improbably complete: creamy, salty, bright, rich.

From Salon • May 12, 2026

Then we let it ferment and age to make soy sauce.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

Katherine placed her chopsticks against the saucer containing her soy sauce and stared at him with something beyond frustration.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green