Dictionary

tapioca en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /tæpiˈoʊkə/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese tapioca, from Old Tupi tapi'oka.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A starchy food made from the cassava plant, used in puddings.
   • It happened when beverage aficionados learned that tapioca, the starch used to make the sweet, round, chewy black bubbles — or pearls — that are the featured topping in the popular boba tea drink, was in short supply. 2021 April 16, Kellen Browning, “Another Unlikely Pandemic Shortage: Boba Tea”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • Fish eyes and glue we used to call the half-cooked, large-grained, starchy tapioca without flavour that we were served every week in our residence at university. How I longed for the creamy pudding Mother used to make. 2009, Edna Staebler, Food That Really Schmecks, Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, →ISBN, page 286:
2. (countable, uncountable) The cassava plant, Manihot esculenta, from which tapioca is derived; manioc.
   • When the entire coast-line becomes a sea of waving palms, with Chinese and Malay villages fringing the shores, which are at present mere barren wastes of mangroves, with plantations of pepper, of gambier, and of tapioca and rice, the Northern Territory, backed up by the unswerving energy of the Australian squatter, miner, and planter, will present a spectacle almost unknown in the scheme of British colonization. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 270:

Forms

Deriveds

pearl tapioca · tapioca fish · tapioca starch · tapioca pearl · tapioca pudding

Descendants

tapyoka · tapioka · tapioka

Synonyms

manioc · cassava

Translations (51)

ru тапио́ка (starchy food from cassava) · ms ubi kayu (starchy food from cassava) · my သာဂူ (starchy food from cassava) · th แป้งมัน (starchy food from cassava) · pl tapioka (starchy food from cassava) · kzj mundok (starchy food from cassava) · ga taipióca (starchy food from cassava) · ko 타피오카 (starchy food from cassava) · be тапіёка (starchy food from cassava) · ms ubi jenderal (starchy food from cassava) · es tapioca (starchy food from cassava) · fr tapioca (starchy food from cassava) · ro tapiocă (starchy food from cassava) · ja タピオカ (starchy food from cassava) · hi साबूदाना (starchy food from cassava) · ms ubi sampa (starchy food from cassava) · fi tapioka (starchy food from cassava) · uk тапіо́ка (starchy food from cassava) · mi tapioka (starchy food from cassava) · sv tapioka (starchy food from cassava) · de Tapioka (starchy food from cassava) · eo tapioko (starchy food from cassava) · cs tapioka (starchy food from cassava) · pt polvilho (starchy food from cassava) · tr tapyoka (starchy food from cassava) · cmn 木薯澱粉 /木薯淀粉 (starchy food from cassava) · ms sampa (starchy food from cassava) · mr साबुदाणा (starchy food from cassava) · hu tápióka (starchy food from cassava) · bn ট্যাপিওকা (starchy food from cassava) · nl tapioca (starchy food from cassava) · ta ஆளுவல்லி (starchy food from cassava) · pt tapioca (starchy food from cassava) · vi bột báng (starchy food from cassava) · hy տապիոկա (starchy food from cassava) · su singkong (starchy food from cassava) · ia tapioca (starchy food from cassava) · te కర్రపెండలం (starchy food from cassava) · id tapioka (starchy food from cassava) · it tapioca (starchy food from cassava) · dtp mundok (starchy food from cassava) · id kanji (starchy food from cassava) · ms ubi perancis (starchy food from cassava) · tl tapyoka (starchy food from cassava) · th แป้งมันสำปะหลัง (starchy food from cassava) · ms singkong (starchy food from cassava) · su sampeu (starchy food from cassava) · ms kaspe (starchy food from cassava) · fr couac (starchy food from cassava) · el ταπιόκα (starchy food from cassava) · mt tapjoka (starchy food from cassava)