sweet potato
Americannoun
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a plant, Ipomoea batatas, of the morning glory family, grown for its sweet, edible, tuberous roots.
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the root itself, used as a vegetable.
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Informal. ocarina.
noun
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a convolvulaceous twining plant, Ipomoea batatas, of tropical America, cultivated in the tropics for its edible fleshy yellow root
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the root of this plant
Etymology
Origin of sweet potato
An Americanism dating back to 1740–50
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.
She’s even preparing her dinners in advance—medium-rare steak and salmon with sweet potato on the side.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Xu, whose mother died when he was a year old, recalled in a speech how he ate only sweet potato and steamed bread in his school years.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
They’re vegetarians: They eat grass, alfalfa, cassava, sweet potato, carrots, beets, and, at the zoo, a commercial feed.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
In the supermarket, bilingual signs pointed shoppers to bwyd môr in Welsh, or seafood, rather than boos mor, and tatws melys, or sweet potato, rather than aval dor melys.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2026
“Your grandmother also said that she needs help with her boxes, and mentioned something about sweet potato pie.”
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
