spinach
Americannoun
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a plant, Spinacia oleracea, cultivated for its edible, crinkly or flat leaves.
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the leaves.
noun
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a chenopodiaceous annual plant, Spinacia oleracea, cultivated for its dark green edible leaves
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the leaves of this plant, eaten as a vegetable
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spinach
First recorded in 1400–50; Middle English spinache, spinage, spinarch, from Anglo-French spinache, from Old French espinache, espinage, espinoche, from Medieval Latin spinargium, spinachium, spinarchium, ultimately from Arabic isfānākh, isfināj, perhaps from Persian isfānāj, ispānāk, aspānāk
Explanation
Spinach is a leafy green edible plant. The most famous spinach eater is probably Popeye, the cartoon sailor who grows huge, strong arm muscles after eating it. There are many different ways to prepare spinach, from raw in a salad to sauteed with spices and cheese in the Indian dish saag paneer. If you don't pick a spinach plant's leaves, it sprouts white flowers and grows almost a foot tall. Spinach comes from the Old French espinache, with its Persian root, aspanakh — both also mean "spinach."
Vocabulary lists containing spinach
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Into the cart go peas, spinach, chopped onions and corn — the humble supporting cast of countless weeknight meals.
From Salon • May 22, 2026
Or I’ll have some eggs and spinach and some fruit or something like that.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026
An hour's drive north of New York City, the greenhouses at Cropsey Farm are seeing their first leaves of kale, spinach and arugula emerge.
From Barron's • Apr. 11, 2026
It is naturally present in foods such as orange peppers, spinach, and kale.
From Science Daily • Apr. 10, 2026
There were the beans and peas with their curly ten-drils, the dark green spinach, the ruffled lettuce, and the hard, pale green cabbages, some of them as big as a newborn baby’s head.
From "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
