tempura

7 6.5

Vegetables or seafood covered in a light batter and deep-fried until crisp

noun
/tɛmˈpʊrə/

: tempura

Their tempura udon is yummy.
shrimp tempura
vegetable tempura
tempura roll

Right now I'll do udon with fish cakes and shrimp tempura chow Mein, you know?

Examples

Yes, I'll have the dumplings and the shiitake-mushroom tempura.

Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
White fish tempura, miso soup, and a sushi sampler from Sushi Zen.

Blog text (34)
And your tempura looks so delicious.

Fiction book (1996)
Tempura is fresh out of the oil.

Larry Crowne (2011)
"I want a baby shrimp tempura roll."

Fiction book (2000)
I'll have the rock shrimp tempura!

Family Evils (2025)
Anyway, this one year we had shrimp and potato tempura.

Fiction book (1992)
We got prawn tempura, seaweed salad.

Copycat (1995)
We serve shrimp tempura, kakiage, miso soup.

Joe (1970)
I ordered the shrimp tempura for my appetizer, and it was delicious.

How Crispy

tempura

7 6.5

steamed

29 1.0

Surface Forms

tempura singular

tempuras plural

Etymology

The word tempura came to Japan with Portuguese cooks and traders, and one popular story says it comes from Portuguese tempero 'seasoning' or from Latin tempora 'times' for church fasting days when people ate fried vegetables. That's why tempura now means vegetables or seafood dipped in a light batter and fried until crisp.