soy sauce

American  

[soi saws] / ˈsɔɪ ˌsɔs /

especially British, soya sauce

noun

soy sauces plural

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

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• soy sauces
  plural

Etymology

Origin of soy sauce

First recorded in 1785–95

Example Sentences

The sauce is then finished with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and chili paste along with a cornstarch slurry to thicken it.

From Salon • Jun. 28, 2026

Each typically contains little plastic sachets of mustard and soy sauce.

From Barron's • Jun. 22, 2026

His original recipe—featuring a sliced cucumber, soy sauce, MSG, sesame oil, sugar and a few other ingredients—has been viewed more than 12 million times.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

Can you walk me through your process of making soy sauce?

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