Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
sweet basil

sweet basil

1 2.0
A green herb with a strong smell used to flavor food like tomatoes
  • noun
  • /swit ˈbeɪzəl/
translation icon : albahaca dulce
  • To finish the salad, sprinkle some fresh sweet basil on top for a burst of flavor.
  • fresh sweet basil

Examples

  • Moving this way, I've got a sweet basil, just one plant and it's done really well.

  • You may want to garnish it with sweet basil or Thai basil leaves before serving.

    Blog text (11)

  • This year we added nasturtiums, Thai beans, Thai basil, regular sweet basil, rosemary, spearmint, catnip, and green beans.

    Blog text (12)

  • The herb garden was terraced above the main vegetable garden, contained by a stone wall, and when the wind stirred, even a little, the room filled with the aroma of sweet basil and lemon balm.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • You can enhance your pasta sauce with fresh sweet basil for added flavor.

  • The recipe calls for two tablespoons of chopped sweet basil to give the dish a fragrant aroma.

Synonyms

basil
vssweet basil
91 1.0

A green plant with a strong smell used in cooking

highlights green leaves and notable fragrance for flavor
common basil
vssweet basil
2.6

A small herb with green leaves used to add flavor to food

is the widely used green leaved herb valued for flavor

Surface Forms

sweet basil singular
sweet basils plural

Morphology

sweet + basil

The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'sweet' (pleasantly scented or tasting) modifies 'basil' (an herb), so the overall meaning — a basil variety with a sweet/aromatic quality — is directly derivable from the parts. This compositional pattern is common and cross-linguistically regular, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE.

Etymology

Sweet basil gets its name from two simple ideas: sweet for its pleasant, sweet smell and basil from an old word meaning 'royal', because people long ago treated the plant as special. So sweet basil literally names a 'sweet'-smelling 'herb' that adds flavor to food.