TOP

Definition of vanilla noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

vanilla

noun
 
/vəˈnɪlə/
 
/vəˈnɪlə/
[uncountable]
jump to other results
  1. a substance obtained from the beans of a tropical plant, also called vanilla, used to add taste to sweet foods, for example ice cream
    • (British English) vanilla essence
    • (North American English) vanilla extract
    • (British English) a vanilla pod
    • (North American English) a vanilla bean
    Topics Plants and treesc1, Foodc1
    Oxford Collocations DictionaryVanilla is used before these nouns:
    • bean
    • essence
    • extract
    • …
    See full entry
    Word Originmid 17th cent.: from Spanish vainilla ‘pod’, diminutive of vaina ‘sheath, pod’, from Latin vagina ‘sheath’. The spelling change was due to association with French vanille.
See vanilla in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
Check pronunciation: vanilla

Other results

All matches

Nearby words

halfway
adverb
 
 
From the Word list
Oxford 5000
C1
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries Word of the Day