Shochu
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A Japanese alcoholic beverage, most commonly distilled from barley, sweet potato or rice. Typically it is 25% alcohol by volume, making it weaker than whisky, but stronger than wine and sake. uncountable, usually
"Lightly flavored shochus, like the barley-based Iichiko, are good mixed with soda water made on the premises with fresh lemon or in a cocktail like the Natsushima […]"
Example
More examples"It's very easy to drink potato shochu now that the potato-like smell has been reduced to a low level through use of the latest biotechnology."
Etymology
From Japanese 焼(しょう)酎(ちゅう) (shōchū), from Middle Chinese 燒酒 (syew tsjuw^X), from 燒 /烧 (shāo, “burn; flammable”) + 酒 (jiǔ, “alcohol”). Compare Mandarin 烧酒 (shāojiǔ), and Korean 소주 (soju). Doublet of shaojiu and soju.
Related phrases
More for "shochu"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.