taro

American  

[tahr-oh, tair-oh, tar-oh] / ˈtɑr oʊ, ˈtɛər oʊ, ˈtær oʊ /

noun

• taros
  plural

1. a plant, Colocasia esculenta, of the arum family, cultivated for its edible tuber: widely distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions, including the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, India, and a number of Asian and African nations.

2. the edible tuber of Colocasia esculenta, a widely distributed tropical and subtropical plant of the arum family.

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taro British  

/ ˈtɑːrəʊ /

noun

1. an aroid plant, Colocasia esculenta, cultivated in the tropics for its large edible rootstock

2. the rootstock of this plant

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• taros
  plural

Etymology

Origin of taro

Borrowed into English from Polynesian around 1770–80

Compare meaning

How does taro compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• malanga vs. taro

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

taro taros

The furthest-flung food mentioned in the buffet of emails I received was Lau lau, Hawaii’s pork-and-fish dish that is wrapped and steamed in taro leaves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

The restaurant is famous for its taro ball desserts, grass jelly and shaved ice - treats not normally found on the menu in Yorkshire, but a popular treat for many in Taiwan and surrounding countries.

From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2024

“It hurts,” said Foster Ampong, 65, who has family members who lost homes in Lahaina and spends much of his time in Olowalu helping other relatives farm taro.

From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2024

A Lahaina stream sustains Keʻeaumoku Kapu’s taro patches on his ancestral lands deep in Kauaula Valley in the mountains above Lahaina.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 23, 2023

When Ma mentioned that my eyes were like steamed taro, swollen and purplish, I muttered that they were itchy from the dust blowing everywhere.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Fishing one day a week and cultivating a few yams and taros on another day would supply their food, and the women made tappa for their few garments out of the bark of trees.

From Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life by Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers

The magic here is quite clear: stones resembling taros are buried in the taro field to promote the growth of taros.

From An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Religion by F. B. (Frank Byron) Jevons

There only remained the scented taros, so that picking again a mandatory arrow, he ascertained who would go and carry away the taros: whereupon a very puny and very delicate rat was heard to assent.

From Hung Lou Meng, Book I Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books by H. Bencraft Joly

Yams, taros, sugar-canes, bananas all grow there in profusion and without cultivation.

From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia by Sir James George Frazer

Samoa itself provided skinny chickens, some kind of pigeon, yams, taros, and of course fish.

From Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life by Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers