Chinese water chestnut
- noun
- /ˈtʃaɪniːz ˈwɔːtər ˈtʃɛstnət/
:
castaña de agua china
- The stir-fry included sliced Chinese water chestnut for added crunch.
Examples
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You can buy fresh Chinese water chestnut at many Asian grocery stores.
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I love adding Chinese water chestnut to my stir-fry.
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She peeled the Chinese water chestnut before adding them to the salad.
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The Chinese water chestnut is crunchy and delicious.
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In many stir-fry dishes, Chinese water chestnuts add a crunchy texture.
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The salad included sliced Chinese water chestnuts for extra flavor.
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For the recipe, you will need fresh Chinese water chestnuts to enhance the dish.
Synonyms
2
3.0
A plant that grows in water with a crunchy edible part used in Asian cooking
A water plant that produces round crunchy tubers called water chestnuts
Surface Forms
Morphology
Chinese + water + chestnut
The noun phrase is fully compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'Chinese', 'water' and 'chestnut' would reasonably infer this refers to a water-grown, chestnut-shaped edible plant associated with Chinese cuisine (i.e. a Chinese variety of water chestnut). Although botanically it is not a true chestnut, that technical distinction is unlikely to prevent comprehension of the referent as a food item.
Etymology
Chinese water chestnut gets its name from the plant's small, round, crunchy bulb that grows in water and looks like a little chestnut, so people used the words water and chestnut to describe it. That's why the name refers to an edible, crunchy tuber used in cooking.