anise seed

1 4.5

A small seed with a sweet licorice taste that people use to flavor food and drinks

noun
/ˈænɪs siːd/

: semilla de anís

Mix the roasted vegetables with olive oil and a pinch of anise seed before baking.
a teaspoon of anise seed
a tablespoon of anise seed
1/2 teaspoon of anise seed

Examples

And last but not least, I've brought you some anise seed drops.

Quills (2000)
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup flour, yeast, salt, anise seed, and sugar.

Blog text (27)
To enhance the flavor of your cake, sprinkle some anise seed into the batter.
For a unique taste, try adding anise seed to your favorite cookie recipe.

Synonyms

aniseed

vsanise seed

1 6.5

A small brown seed with a sweet licorice taste used to flavor food and drinks

is written as two words rather than as a single word

Surface Forms

anise seed singular

anise seeds plural

Morphology

anise + seed

The phrase is fully compositional: 'anise' names a flavoring plant/seed and 'seed' denotes a small plant part, so their combination straightforwardly denotes the small seeds of the anise plant. This noun‑noun compound follows a common, cross‑linguistic naming pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Anise seed is simply the seed of the anise plant; these tiny seeds taste and smell like 'licorice' and were long used in cooking, drinks and traditional medicine to soothe the stomach. So, today anise seed means the small, licorice-flavoured seed used to add flavour to food and drinks.