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sesame.

A tropical Asian plant (Sesamum indicum) bearing small flat seeds used as food and as a source of oil.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsɛsəmi/UK/ˈsɛzəmi/UK/ˈsɛsəmi/US/ˈsɛsəm/obsolete
  1. A tropical Asian plant (Sesamum indicum) bearing small flat seeds used as food and as a source of oil.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The seed of this plant.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From late Middle English sisamie, from Latin sīsamum, sēsamum, from Ancient Greek σήσαμον (sḗsamon), from Aramaic שושמא (šūššmā), shortening of שומשומא (šumššumā), from Akkadian 𒊭𒈦𒌑𒈬 (šamaššammū, “oil plant”), compound of 𒉌𒄑 (šaman, “oil”) and 𒌑 (šammum, “plant”). The modern pronunciation is perhaps influenced by (transliterations of) Greek σησάμη (sisámi). Doublet of sesamum.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.