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Glite Dictionary
🍃 Mate plant 🌿 A cooking herb
yerba

yerba

8.5
A plant whose leaves add flavor to food or are used for medicine
  • noun
  • /ˈjɜr.bə/
translation icon : hierba
  • She brewed a tea with yerba to help soothe her cold.

Examples

  • The chef used yerba to add flavor to his special dish.

  • In herbal medicine, yerba is known for its calming properties.

  • Because she gave me medicine, or some milk, or a packet of yerba or sugar, I know that I have to go to her rally in order to fulfill my obligation to her, to show my gratitude.

    Academic text (2000)

Synonyms

simple
vsyerba
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A plant used in herbal medicine

is broader and covers both cooking uses and medicinal uses
potherb
vsyerba
  • Archaic
9.1

A leafy green used in cooking like spinach or chard

is used more broadly for cooking or healing not only food

Compounds

yerba buena
  • US
1 9.9

A low green herb from northwestern USA with a minty smell used to make soothing tea

yerba mansa
  • Specialized
9.9

A plant from southwestern North America that grows in wet places and has strong-smelling roots and small white flower spikes

yerba santa
  • Specialized
9.9

A sticky evergreen plant with scented leaves that people use to treat coughs and chest congestion

Surface Forms

yerba singular
yerbas plural

Etymology

The word yerba comes from the same root as the English word herb and the old Latin herba, meaning 'plant' or 'grass'. So when people use yerba for cooking or medicine they are just calling it an 'herb' for flavor or healing.