chowder
Americannoun
-
chowders
plural
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:
One of them had worked in the restaurant for more than a decade, and was the second person ever to make Kuchinsky’s conch chowder and fritter batter for customers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Just four weeks ago, the Boston Red Sox were more stomach-churning than a bowl of clam chowder left in the New England sun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
"This is why we eat clam chowder and we don't eat brachiopod chowder," Sperling said.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
The base was rich, but it lacked the kind of body that makes a chowder feel finished: the subtle thickness, the quiet cohesion.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2026
Lizzie rowed Turner back across the New Meadows after her granddaddy finished the chowder.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
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
Popular local sports bar Lost Roo serves chowders, salad, burgers and fish within a sunny building.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2022
Fish stock is employed for making chowders and fish soups.
From Woman's Institute Library of Cookery Volume 3: Soup; Meat; Poultry and Game; Fish and Shell Fish by Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
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.
