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Glite Dictionary
Allium cepa

Allium cepa

4.8
A plant like a common onion that has a round edible bulb
  • noun
  • /ˈæliəm ˈsiːpə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : cebolla
  • The scientific name for the common onion is Allium cepa.

Examples

  • Farmers cultivate Allium cepa around the world for its edible bulbs.

  • The Allium cepa is a staple in many kitchens.

  • During botany class, we studied the life cycle of Allium cepa.

  • I bought some Allium cepas from the farmer's market.

  • Farmers cultivate Allium cepa around the world for its edible bulbs.

  • The scientific name for the common onion is Allium cepa.

  • I bought some Allium cepa from the farmer's market.

Synonyms

onion
vsAllium cepa
393 1.0

A round vegetable with layers and a strong taste used in cooking

refers to the species using formal scientific naming rather than the food focus
onion plant
vsAllium cepa
1.0

A plant with a round bulb you can eat and long hollow leaves

is the scientific name for that same cultivated bulbous plant

Surface Forms

Allium cepa singular
Allium cepas plural

Morphology

Allium + cepa

The form is a Linnaean binomial: 'Allium' names the genus (a group including garlic and onion) and 'cepa' is the species epithet (Latin for onion), so if a learner knows both constituents and the convention of scientific names they can infer it refers to the common onion. However, recognizing binomial taxonomy and the Latin epithet is specialized knowledge and 'cepa' is not a common English word, so the meaning is not fully predictable for an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Allium cepa comes from old Latin words: Allium meant garlic-like plants and cepa meant 'onion', so the name simply means the common 'onion' we eat today.