noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A pasta of North African origin made of crushed and steamed semolina. countable, uncountable

   "Karou took the plate of couscous and vegetables."

2. 2
   a pasta made in northern Africa of crushed and steamed semolina wordnet
3. 3
   a spicy dish that originated in northern Africa; consists of pasta steamed with a meat and vegetable stew wordnet

Example

More examples

"They rolled the couscous of Mazigh's wedding party."

Etymology

Borrowed from French couscous, from Arabic كُسْكُس (kuskus), from a Berber language. First use appears c. 1593.

Related phrases

Israeli couscouspearl couscouspearled couscousnorth africa

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