sweet sorghum
- noun
- /swit ˈsɔrɡəm/
- The juice extracted from sweet sorghum is commonly turned into molasses for baking.
Examples
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The objectives of the grant include producing two crops high in biomass: energy cane and sweet sorghum for biofuels and biochemicals.
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The featured crops were energy cane and sweet sorghum, both high in biomass for use in producing biofuels and biochemicals.
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He said sweet sorghum offers both sugar and cellulosic potential.
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"Some 12 percent of current U.S. grain sorghum production goes into biofuel production, but Buchanan said sweet sorghum may offer even more opportunity.
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Viator is studying the productivity of various sweet sorghum hybrids with differing maturity dates.
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Through cooperative research with USDA and the Department of Energy, researchers are looking for better sweet sorghum hybrids with drought tolerance, pest resistance, and low lignin content.
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Farmers grow sweet sorghum to produce syrup that is used as a natural sweetener.
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Research shows that sweet sorghum can be an alternative source of sugar for the production of ethanol.
Synonyms
A tall plant grown for its sweet juice used to make syrup
A tall grain plant that farmers grow for its sweet juice to make syrup
A tall grain plant grown for its sweet juice used to make syrup
How Sweet
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward adjectival noun phrase where 'sweet' modifies 'sorghum', indicating a variety of sorghum that is sweet (e.g., producing sweet juice or used for syrup). Because the meaning is directly compositional and follows common adjective + noun patterns found across languages, a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun sweet sorghum comes from farmers who grew a kind of sorghum with very sweet stalks; they would crush the tall stems to get sugary juice and boil it into syrup. That's why 'sweet sorghum' means a type of sorghum grown for its 'sweet juice' and 'used to make syrup'.