lettuce
Americannoun
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lettuces
plural
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a cultivated plant, Lactuca sativa, occurring in many varieties and having succulent leaves used for salads.
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any species of Lactuca.
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Slang. U.S. dollar bills; greenbacks.
noun
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any of various plants of the genus Lactuca, esp L. sativa, which is cultivated in many varieties for its large edible leaves: family Asteraceae (composites)
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the leaves of any of these varieties, which are eaten in salads
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any of various plants that resemble true lettuce, such as lamb's lettuce and sea lettuce
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lettuce
1250–1300; 1925–30 lettuce for def. 3; Middle English letuse, apparently < Old French laitues, plural of laitue < Latin lactūca a lettuce, perhaps derivative of lac, stem lact- milk, with termination as in erūca rocket 2 (or by association with Greek galaktoûchos having milk)
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:
Chief Executive Bruce Taylor said the company won’t sell iceberg lettuce in the U.S. or Canada that was harvested or processed in the region between May 1 and Aug. 31, starting next year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Taylor Farms, the produce giant linked to last summer’s deadly cyclospora outbreak, is suspending sales of iceberg lettuce from central Mexico during the parasite’s peak season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
“Your lettuce will go from $3.39 to $3.59 a pound in a week. You won’t even notice that because you don’t pay attention,” Deol said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Halkias pointed to the fast food chain’s recent adoption of shredded lettuce on its chicken sandwiches as a cost-slashing maneuver typical of private equity-owned restaurants.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026
After I helped Sohrab polish off every piece of lettuce on the table—two whole heads—he ran to get dressed, while I watched Khanum Rezaei make her bread.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
These are farm labourers who help to harvest lettuces, cauliflowers, spinach and beans.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2025
Nowadays in the early mornings, farmers — many of them descendants of Xochimilco’s original inhabitants — can be seen loading canoes with lettuces and flowers grown in the rich sediments dredged from the canals.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
These include herbs, lettuces, cucumbers, zucchinis, silverbeets, peas, beans and tomatoes.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2023
I always have a ton of bell peppers, chiles and lettuces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
They discovered that the whole- leaf lettuces stayed fresh right through to dinner the following Saturday.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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.
