green soybean

2.8

A small green bean that you boil or steam and eat from the pod

noun
/ɡrin ˈsoʊbiːn/

: edamame

The salad includes fresh green soybean for added protein.
frozen green soybeans

Examples

I ordered a bowl of green soybeans as a healthy appetizer.
In many Asian dishes, green soybeans are steamed and served with a sprinkle of sea salt.
Stir-fried green soybean pairs well with garlic and ginger.
I love eating green soybeans in salads.
The green soybean dish was delicious!
Edamame, which are small, green soybeans, make a delicious and healthy snack.
You can find green soybeans in salads or as a side dish in Japanese cuisine.

Synonyms

soy

vsgreen soybean

68 1.2

A plant that produces edible seeds used for food, oil, and animal feed

is picked green and served as a cooked vegetable

soybean

vsgreen soybean

57 1.8

A plant grown for its beans used to make food, animal feed, and oil

is the seed harvested green and eaten as a cooked vegetable

edamame

vsgreen soybean

4 4.2

Young green soybeans usually boiled or steamed and eaten as a snack

is harvested and cooked as a vegetable rather than mainly a snack

soya bean

vsgreen soybean

2.4

A plant with seeds used to make food, oil, and animal feed

is harvested early and prepared as a shelled vegetable

Surface Forms

green soybean singular

green soybeans plural

Morphology

green + soybean

The meaning is directly built from 'green' (not ripe/immature) + 'soybean' (a cultivated bean), so a learner who knows both words can infer it is a soybean harvested or eaten while still green. This attributive noun construction is a transparent, compositional pattern found cross-linguistically and should be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Green soybean comes from the simple idea of a soybean picked while it is still green and not fully dry. People cook and eat these young beans like a vegetable, so the term means 'a soybean harvested young and eaten as food'.