ketchup
Americannoun
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a condiment consisting of puréed tomatoes, onions, vinegar, sugar, spices, etc.
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any of various other condiments or sauces for meat, fish, etc..
mushroom ketchup; walnut ketchup.
noun
Etymology
Origin of ketchup
First recorded in 1705–15; from Malay kəchap “fish sauce,” perhaps from dialectal Chinese kéjāp (Guangdong) or ke-tsiap (Xiamen), akin to Chinese qié “eggplant” + chī “juice”
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.
“It doesn’t do a thing, you know, for what the ketchup tastes like.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
It wouldn’t be easy, but he knew the products well: He had grown up eating hot dogs smothered in Heinz ketchup at Yankees games as a kid.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
I have tenderness, of course, for the loaf of my childhood — the one bound with Italian breadcrumbs and glossed with ketchup, unapologetically tomato-forward, studded with green pepper.
From Salon • Mar. 11, 2026
With Warren Buffett gone, ketchup is no longer flavor of the month.
From Barron's • Jan. 21, 2026
They were caked with the remains of some kind of hardened green vegetable and dried ketchup.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
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.
