sugarcane
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of sugarcane
Explanation
Sugarcane is a tall, grassy plant that's used to make sugar. The majority of sugarcane is grown in Brazil. Most of the world's sugar is produced from sugarcane — and in recent years, that's meant a total of about 1.8 billion tons of harvested sugarcane annually. Special factories process the cut cane, extracting sugar crystals from inside its stalks, then evaporating moisture from the crystals to create fine, white table sugar. Other sugar products come from sugarcane as well, including molasses and cane syrup.
Vocabulary lists containing sugarcane
Central America and the Caribbean - Introductory
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Central America and the Caribbean - Middle School and High School
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Chapter 15: African Civilizations
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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.
Meanwhile, for those who like their coffee with sugar, excessive rainfall could hurt Brazil’s sugarcane harvest season, while India’s major sugarcane-growing states could experience drought, said Roemer.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026
It has said production fell below estimates because of sugarcane disease and waterlogging caused by excessive rainfall.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Other humans, like Mariana Aidar, president of the animal-welfare nonprofit Projeto CAPA—the woman presently holding out the sugarcane to the capybara snacking away on the riverbank—are fighting for their capybara neighbors to survive.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
A new type of artificial saliva, delivered as a mouthwash and made using a lab-modified sugarcane protein called CANECPI-5, could help protect the teeth of patients with head and neck cancer.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 5, 2026
Leandro, the engineer, joked that he and Manolo could have mashed at least a ton of sugarcane by now if they’d been rigged up with a harness like a team of oxen.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
