soy sauce

American  

[soi saws] / ˈsɔɪ ˌsɔs /

especially British, soya sauce

noun

1. a salty, fermented sauce prepared from soybeans, used in East Asian cuisine.

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soy sauce British  

/ sɔɪ /

noun

1. Also called: soya sauce.  a salty dark brown sauce made from fermented soya beans, used esp in Japanese and Chinese cookery

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Etymology

Origin of soy sauce

First recorded in 1785–95

Example Sentences

Cook ground chicken in a pan with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce.

From Salon • May 22, 2026

From there, the whole thing gets nudged further into depth with oregano, paprika and, perhaps unexpectedly, soy sauce.

From Salon • May 19, 2026

A household name in Japan, Calbee is known for its savoury potato chips with an array of flavours from seaweed salt to soy sauce and butter.

From Barron's • May 12, 2026

It was only around the fourth or fifth grade of elementary school that I finally realized, “Wait, maybe we’re a soy sauce shop.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

Katherine placed her chopsticks against the saucer containing her soy sauce and stared at him with something beyond frustration.

From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green