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.
Other examples include combinations like purple sweet potato ice cream, cheesecake with carrot compote, or chocolate bars loaded with salty potato chips.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
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
Other nights I raid the freezer for peas and carrots, handfuls of spinach or little nuggets of sweet potato in the middle of winter.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
Today, the staple crops of highland agriculture are the recently introduced sweet potato, along with taro, bananas, yams, sugarcane, edible grass stems, and several leafy vegetables.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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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.
