Arugula

//əˈɹuɡələ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A yellowish-flowered Mediterranean herb of the mustard family with flavoured leaves, often eaten in salads, that has a distinct, peppery flavor, of three species:; Eruca spp., especially Eruca sativa (syn. Eruca vesicaria subsp. sativa) countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    erect European annual often grown as a salad crop to be harvested when young and tender wordnet
  3. 3
    A yellowish-flowered Mediterranean herb of the mustard family with flavoured leaves, often eaten in salads, that has a distinct, peppery flavor, of three species:; Diplotaxis tenuifolia countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
garden rocketrocketroquetterugulacoleworteruca

Example

More examples

"I can't stand arugula or any bitter greens."

Etymology

Probably from a Southern Italian dialect word equivalent to Standard Italian rucola, whence also, since c. 1967, English rucola. Also cognate to rocket (“plant”), eruca, roquette.

Related phrases

eruca sativaeruca vesicaria

More for "arugula"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.