sugar beet
3
2.8
- noun
- /ˈʃʊɡər biːt/
:
remolacha azucarera
- Table sugar comes from sugar beets or sugar cane.
- sugar beet root
- Sugar beet growers
- sugar beet breeding
It's not like that artificial sugar made of sugar beets and sugar cane.
- It's not like that artificial sugar made of sugar beets and sugar cane.
Examples
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On the road in front of you, sugar beets have fallen randomly from the truck taking them to market.
Fiction book (1999) -
To your left lies a deserted sugar beet field; to your right, an equally dreary corn field.
Fiction book (1999) -
Growers in 14 states produce America's sugar beet harvest, worth more than $1 billion annually.
Academic text (2000) -
The major crops farmed in this country are sugar beets, potatoes, apples, grapes, wheat, and corn.
Blog text (26) -
In the fall, farmers gather the sugar beets to process them into sweeteners.
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Sugar beets are primarily grown in cooler climates where they thrive best.
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The local factory converts harvested sugar beets into granulated sugar for distribution.
How Sweet
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a beet grown for making sugar' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'sugar' (relating to sugar production) with 'beet' (a root vegetable). This is a regular noun–noun compound where the first element specifies type/purpose; many languages have the same construction, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Sugar beet names a farm plant with a large, white root that tastes very sweet. Because the root is used 'to make sugar', people called the plant sugar beet, so today the word means a beet grown for making sugar.