Broccoli

//ˈbɹɑ.kə.li// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A plant, Brassica oleracea var. italica, of the cabbage family, Brassicaceae; especially, the tree-shaped flower and stalk that are eaten as a vegetable. countable, uncountable

    "You can also get oriental broccolis such as kailaan and nabana, which are easy to grow and really tasty."

  2. 2
    plural of broccolo form-of, plural
  3. 3
    branched green undeveloped flower heads wordnet
  4. 4
    Marijuana. US, countable, slang, uncountable

    "I be smokin' broccoli, mama told me eat my veggies"

  5. 5
    plant with dense clusters of tight green flower buds wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Italian.

Synonyms

All synonyms
amnesiabenjbhangblowboobrassica oleracea italica

Example

More examples

"The broccoli is either costly or of poor quality."

Etymology

Etymology 1

1699, Italian broccoli, plural of broccolo (“cabbage sprout, head”), diminutive of brocco (“shoot, sprout”) (which is also the origin of brocade), from Latin broccus (“pointed, sharp, projecting; buck-toothed”), possibly of Gaulish origin, related to Proto-Celtic *brokkos (“badger”) or Proto-Celtic *brozdos (“tip, point”) (compare Scottish Gaelic brog (“pointed instrument, awl”), Welsh procio (“thrust, poke”), Old English brord (“point, spike”)). More at brochure, brad.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Italian Broccoli.

Related phrases

Aztec broccoliChinese broccolibaby broccolibroccoli cutbroccoli hairbroccoli haircutbroccoli raabbroccoli rabebroccoli rape

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