Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
sugar pea

sugar pea

2.6
A small green vegetable with flat pods you eat whole while young
  • noun
  • /ˈʃʊɡər pi/
  • US
translation icon : guisante dulce
  • During the summer, we enjoy harvesting sugar peas straight from the garden.

Examples

  • Dwarf Gray sugar peas and they're all looking great.

  • I love to add fresh sugar peas to my salads for extra crunch.

  • You can steam sugar peas and serve them as a healthy side dish.

Synonyms

snow pea
vssugar pea
2 2.3

A flat green pod you eat whole when young

is the same meaning but used as the more general name
edible-podded pea
vssugar pea
4.4

A pea plant with thick soft pods that you can eat

is flatter and eaten when unripe rather than having thick pods
edible-pod pea
vssugar pea
4.4

A type of pea plant that makes soft pods you can eat whole

focuses on flat edible pods eaten whole while unripe not on lining

Surface Forms

sugar pea singular
sugar peas plural

Morphology

sugar + pea

The compound is compositionally transparent: 'sugar' signals sweetness/varietal quality and 'pea' names the vegetable, so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a sweet/type of pea (edible pods). This follows common noun-noun compounding patterns found across languages, making the meaning predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Sugar pea gets its name from the pod's mild, 'sweet' taste and the fact you can eat the whole flat pod when it is young. So sugar shows the sweet flavour and pea shows it is a pea plant, which is why the name means a pea with a tender, edible pod.