coca

¹ American  

[koh-kuh] / ˈkoʊ kə /

noun

1. a shrub, Erythroxylon coca, native to the Andes, having simple, alternate leaves and small yellowish flowers.

2. the dried leaves of this shrub, which are chewed for their stimulant properties and which yield cocaine and other alkaloids.

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Coca ² American  

[koh-kuh] / ˈkoʊ kə /

noun

1. Imogene, 1908–2001, U.S. comic actress.

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coca British  

/ ˈkəʊkə /

noun

1. either of two shrubs, Erythroxylon coca or E. truxiuense, native to the Andes: family Erythroxylaceae

2. the dried leaves of these shrubs and related plants, which contain cocaine and are chewed by the peoples of the Andes for their stimulating effects

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Etymology

Origin of coca

First recorded in 1610–20; from Spanish, from Quechua kuka

Example Sentences

The UN says Bolivia has 31,000 hectares of coca crops.

From Barron's

It starts with the coca leaf, which is mulched into a paste and mixed with chemicals.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the midst of the strikes, Colombian drug traffickers have remained active on TikTok, glorifying their trade in music videos set amid coca leaf crops and drug laboratories.

From Barron's

Some have even said the water looks like "coca cola".

From BBC

And in 2009, the new constitution even recognized “ancestral coca as cultural patrimony, a renewable natural resource of Bolivia’s biodiversity, and as a factor of social cohesion.”

From Salon