chowder
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of chowder
1735–45, < French chaudière pot, kettle < Late Latin caldāria cauldron
Explanation
Chowder is a thick, chunky soup that often contains fish or shellfish. New England is well known for its creamy, rich version of clam chowder. Chowder is somewhere between a soup and a stew — it's full of chunks of potato and onions, thick with bacon, fish, or vegetables, and sometimes eaten with crackers on the side or crumbled on top. Chowder is one of many words that distinctly originated in America, and it was included in the first edition of Noah Webster's dictionary of American English. Chowder comes from the pot in which it's cooked, chaudière, French for "a pot."
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:
"This is why we eat clam chowder and we don't eat brachiopod chowder," Sperling said.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
On the stovetop, it stays brothy and spoonable, somewhere between a chowder and a dumpling soup.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
A serving of a Boston-centric alternative, canned clam chowder, would bump the meal up to $3.64.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
This chowder is one of the freshest, most summer-glorifying soups you can imagine.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025
We ate conch chowder all the time, but for some reason it tasted better than ever.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
A taste of New England in West Hollywood, it quickly became known for fried clams and chowders harkening to Cimarusti’s Rhode Island childhood and plump lobster rolls filled with never-frozen lobster.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
Dry sherry makes most any chowder better, especially red chowders.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2024
Restaurants and home cooks are filling hollowed-out, crusty round vessels with hot stews and chowders.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
The 4-acre facility, which can produce up to 25 tons of chowders, soups and gravies a day, seven days a week, has seen a recent leveling-off in shipping costs for some ingredients.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
These gatherings, he learned, had become quite an institution for the mingling of fish chowders and bright speeches.
From The New England Magazine Volume 1, No. 3, March, 1886 Bay State Monthly Volume 4, No. 3, March, 1886 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
