Parsnip

//ˈpɑɹ.snɪp// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A biennial plant, Pastinaca sativa, related to the carrot.
  2. 2
    Acronym of politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics, isms, pork (“a set of topics that may be controversial in a classroom setting”). abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable
  3. 3
    whitish edible root; eaten cooked wordnet
  4. 4
    The root of the parsnip, when used as a vegetable.
  5. 5
    a strong-scented plant cultivated for its edible root wordnet
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  1. 6
    the whitish root of cultivated parsnip wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
pastinaca sativavegetable

Example

More examples

"Parsnip is a biennial species, similar to carrots."

Etymology

From 16th-century parsnepe, from Middle English passenep, a modification of Old French pasnaie by influence of Middle English nepe (“turnip”), from Latin pastināca (“parsnip, carrot”), from pastinum (“two-pronged fork”) as in pastināre (“to dig up the ground”).

Related phrases

Victorian parsnipcow parsnipcultivated parsnipfine words butter no parsnipsgiant cow parsnipgiant parsnipgolden meadow parsnipmeadow parsnipparsnip chervilparsnip mothparsnip swallowtailparsnip webworm

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