sweet potato

American  

noun

1. a plant, Ipomoea batatas, of the morning glory family, grown for its sweet, edible, tuberous roots.

2. the root itself, used as a vegetable.

3. Informal. ocarina.

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sweet potato British  

noun

1. a convolvulaceous twining plant, Ipomoea batatas, of tropical America, cultivated in the tropics for its edible fleshy yellow root

2. the root of this plant

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Etymology

Origin of sweet potato

An Americanism dating back to 1740–50

Example Sentences

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

Rose McGee’s years-long relationship with buttery crusts and heavenly aromas began with an impulse one day one Sunday morning to make a sweet potato pie and a blackberry cobbler.

From Salon • Jun. 19, 2025

Instead of plating a large piece of chicken with sweet potatoes and rice on the side, transform those same ingredients into a sweet potato risotto with chicken.

From Salon • Mar. 30, 2025

Those dozen blockbusters are the cereals wheat, corn, rice, barley, and sorghum; the pulse soybean; the roots or tubers potato, manioc, and sweet potato; the sugar sources sugarcane and sugar beet; and the fruit banana.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond