curry

curry — noun

1. a type of spiced food that comes from South Asia, prepared by cooking meat, fish

1.nounB1
Definition

a type of spiced food that comes from South Asia, prepared by cooking meat, fish, or vegetables slowly in a seasoned sauce made from ground spices, and usually served with rice or flatbread

Example

Tamar ordered a chicken curry with steamed rice at the new Indian restaurant.

order + chicken curry at restaurant

The chef added coconut milk to the curry to make the sauce creamier and milder.

curry + coconut milk

Common collocations
  • chicken curry
  • vegetable curry
  • curry powder
  • curry paste
  • curry sauce
  • curry dish
  • mild curry
  • spicy curry
  • Thai curry
  • Indian curry
  • curry and rice
  • a bowl of curry
  • curry house
Synonyms
  • stew

    a broader category; stews are not necessarily spicy and do not use curry spice blends

  • korma

    a specific mild, creamy style of curry

  • masala

    refers to the spice blend rather than the finished dish

Grammar Patterns

curry + noun

adjective + curry

Usage Note

Curry is both countable ('I ordered two curries') and uncountable ('a bowl of curry'). The word covers many regional styles — Thai green curry, Japanese curry, and Indian curry are quite different dishes.

Common Mistakes

I ate a curry stew for dinner.
I ate a curry for dinner.
'Curry' already means the dish; adding 'stew' is redundant and may confuse the reader.
Pass the curry sauce for my rice.' (when you mean the dish itself)
Pass the curry for my rice.
'Curry' refers to the whole prepared dish, not just the sauce.

curry — verb

Word family

  • curried
    adjectiveB2
  • currycomb
    nounC1
  • currycomb
    verbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Curry' and 'stew' both refer to dishes of meat or vegetables cooked slowly in liquid, but a curry is defined by its use of ground spices (turmeric, cumin, coriander, chilli) and its South Asian origin. A stew is a broader category — any slow-cooked, liquid-based dish — and is not necessarily spicy. 'Sauce' is even broader: it is the liquid component rather than the complete dish, so you eat 'curry' but you dip bread in 'sauce'. 'Korma' is a specific type of curry (mild, creamy, often yoghurt-based), making it a hyponym of curry. In everyday conversation, a diner might say 'I'll have the curry' referring to the complete plate, whereas 'the stew' refers to the cooking method first and the specific dish second.

curry ↗stewsauce ↗korma

Common collocations

Nouns

  • curry powder
  • curry paste
  • curry sauce
  • curry dish
  • curry house
  • curry leaf
  • currycomb

Phrases

  • curry favor with
  • chicken curry
  • vegetable curry
  • red curry
  • green curry
  • yellow curry
  • a bowl of curry

Prepositions

  • curry with
  • curry for

Etymology

TamilPortugueseEnglish

The noun 'curry' comes from the Tamil word 'kari', meaning 'sauce' or 'gravy for rice'. It entered English via Portuguese 'caril' in the 16th century as British traders encountered South Indian cooking. The verb 'curry' (to groom a horse) comes from a different root — Old French 'correer', meaning 'to prepare or arrange', which entered English in the 13th century. The 'curry favor' idiom combines this Old French verb with 'favor' (from Latin 'favor'), literally meaning 'to prepare favour' for someone. The leather-treating sense traces to the same Old French root, referring to preparing a material.