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shea butter

shea butter

1 3.4
A soft cream-like fat made from the nut of an African tree used on skin and in cooking
  • noun
  • /ˈʃeɪə ˈbʌtər/
translation icon : manteca de karité
  • Extra hydrating Shea butter body wash for severely dry skin.
  • shea butter moisturizer
  • shea butter lotion
  • shea butter and oils

This is a real Shea butter that comes straight from Africa.

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Examples

  • Products that contain shea butter are best for the treatment of this condition.

    Blog text (3)
  • I used to think that oil or Shea butter alone moisturized my hair, and I would wonder why it felt dry even when using a great amount.

    Blog text (33)
  • This is a real Shea butter that comes straight from Africa.

  • The mill will allow production of shea butter and make the sale.

    Blog text (10)
  • As long as I have shea butter, coconut oil, and water, I'm fine.

    Blog text (33)
  • These are the Shea butter luscious lipsticks.

  • Oil and shea butter help to seal in the moisture so that the water doesn't just evaporate soon after.

    Blog text (33)
  • So I'm wearing Shea butter right now and it just absorbs in and it doesn't leave any kind of like a layer on top of the skin.

  • They contain aloe Vera, Shea butter, Jamaican black Castor oil, almond oil, hydrolyzed quinoa and some really cool ingredients.

  • After a long day in the sun, she applied shea butter to soothe her dry skin.

Synonyms

coconut oil
vsshea butter
11 1.5

An edible oil from inside coconuts used for cooking and skin care

is a creamy semisolid fat rather than a liquid oil
cocoa butter
vsshea butter
3 3.1

A pale yellow fat from cocoa beans used to make chocolate and skin creams

is used more for skin care and general cooking rather than chocolate
body butter
vsshea butter
1 3.4

A thick cream used on the skin to make it soft and less dry

is the raw plant fat ingredient rather than a finished moisturizer
cohune-nut oil
vsshea butter
  • US
9.9

A thick cooking oil from the nuts of a cohune palm that people also use to make soap

is used in skin care rather than in soap making

Surface Forms

shea butter singular
shea butters plural

Morphology

shea + butter

The noun is a simple compound: 'shea' (the shea tree or its nut) + 'butter' (a fatty substance), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it is the fatty product made from shea. This compositional pattern (type-of butter) is common in English (e.g., peanut butter) and cross-linguistically transparent, so the meaning is directly derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Shea butter comes from the nuts of the shea tree, where people crush and heat the nuts to make a soft, creamy butter. Imagine that white, oily 'fat' made from nuts used to smooth the skin or for cooking, and you can see why the name means a natural skin-care and food 'fat' today.