Skip to main content
matzo meal

matzo meal

1 6.7
A coarse flour from ground dry flat bread used in Jewish cooking like for matzo balls
  • noun
  • /ˈmɑːtsoʊ miːl/
translation icon : harina de matzá
  • I need some matzo meal for the recipe.
  • a cup of matzo meal
  • matzo meal and salt
  • eggs and matzo meal

Examples

  • She mixed eggs with matzo meal to make traditional matzo balls.

  • Can you buy matzo meal at the store?

  • For Passover, we used matzo meal instead of regular breadcrumbs.

  • The recipe calls for one cup of matzo meal as a thickener.

  • Use restraint when adding eggs and matzo meal to the mixture.

  • Matzo balls are traditional dumplings made from matzo meal and are often served in soup.

  • In a small bowl, mix matzo meal with salt and spices before coating the fish.

Synonyms

matzah meal
vsmatzo meal
7.4

A coarse flour made by grinding matzah, the flat Jewish bread eaten at Passover

is used to make specific dishes and to coat foods
matzoh meal
vsmatzo meal
8.2

A coarse flour made by grinding matzos used in Jewish cooking during Passover

is used to make specific dishes and to coat foods

How Fine

powder
220 1.0
flour
197 1.0
matzo meal
1 6.7
crumb
96 1.0

Surface Forms

matzo meal singular
matzo meals plural

Morphology

matzo + meal

The meaning is directly and compositionally built from 'matzo' (unleavened bread) + 'meal' (ground cereal), so a learner who knows both words can infer it is ground matzo used in cooking; this parallels productive English compounds like 'oatmeal' or 'cornmeal'. The referent is a straightforward nominal compound with no idiomatic shift, making the sense predictable to B1 learners who know the constituents.

Etymology

Matzo meal comes from the simple idea of matzo, the flat bread made without yeast, ground into a coarse meal or flour. During 'Passover', cooks would break and grind extra matzo to make a coarse flour for dumplings, coatings, and thickeners, so the name now means 'a coarse flour made by grinding matzos'.