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.
They’re vegetarians: They eat grass, alfalfa, cassava, sweet potato, carrots, beets, and, at the zoo, a commercial feed.
From Slate • May 27, 2026
Maybe I’ll get like some gorgeous Japanese sweet potato cause I try to eat a sweet potato daily.
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026
The sweet potato coconut soup hit the spot.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 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
Everyone gathered around as Mareth passed out fish, bread, and something that reminded Gregor of a sweet potato but wasn’t.
From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions 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.
