sugarcane

American  

[shoog-er-kayn] / ˈʃʊg ərˌkeɪn /

Or sugar cane

noun

1. a tall grass, Saccharum officinarum, of tropical and warm regions, having a stout, jointed stalk, and constituting the chief source of sugar.

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Etymology

Origin of sugarcane

First recorded in 1560–70; sugar + cane

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sugarcane

Excessive rain in Brazil may delay sugarcane crushing, which would mean less near-term sugar supply.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

Sugar prices slid 5.7% on month, as fewer Brazilian farmers diverted sugarcane to ethanol production, while a weakening of Brazil’s real helped foreign buyers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

India's main summer crops include rice, pulses, coarse cereals, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane and jute.

From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026

Many economically important crops, including wheat, cotton, and sugarcane, are polyploids with similarly complex evolutionary histories.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 19, 2026

The guard wouldn’t accept a trade for our remaining goods—the animal skin sack of sugarcane syrup and the packet of cherry paste—so we had to give him our gold.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

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