common hops

5.8

A climbing plant whose flowers brewers use to give beer a bitter taste

noun
/ˈkɑːmən hɑps/

Specialized

: lúpulos comunes

The flowers of common hops give beer its distinctive bitter flavor.

Examples

Farmers in the region have begun cultivating common hops for the local breweries.
Brewers select the finest common hops to create rich and aromatic ales.
The common hops plant grows quickly.
I love common hops!
Brewers select the finest common hops to create rich and aromatic ales.
Farmers in the region have begun cultivating common hops for the local breweries.
The flowers of common hops give beer its distinctive bitter flavor.

Synonyms

Humulus lupulus

vscommon hops

Specialized

8.5

A European climbing plant whose flowers give beer a bitter taste

is the common everyday name used in ordinary speech

hops

vscommon hops

Specialized

5.6

Dried flowers from a climbing plant used to give beer a bitter taste and smell

is the whole living climbing plant rather than the dried brewing ingredient

Surface Forms

common hops plural

Morphology

common + hops

This is a straightforward adjective + noun combination: 'common' (ordinary/widespread) modifies 'hops' (the plant/flowers), so the phrase denotes the typical/widely found hops plant. The meaning is compositionally predictable from the parts and follows normal cross-linguistic adjective+noun patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand it.

Etymology

Common hops The noun common hops comes from the climbing plant hops, which has small cone-like flowers that brewers add to beer to give it a 'bitter' taste and a nice smell. That's why 'common hops' means the plants people grow and use to flavor beer.