Soya
//ˈsɔɪ.ə// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Alternative form of soy. British, alt-of, alternative, uncountable
- 2 the most highly proteinaceous vegetable known; the fruit of the soybean plant is used in a variety of foods and as fodder (especially as a replacement for animal protein) wordnet
- 3 erect bushy hairy annual herb having trifoliate leaves and purple to pink flowers; extensively cultivated for food and forage and soil improvement but especially for its nutritious oil-rich seeds; native to Asia wordnet
Example
More examples"Add the natural yoghurt and soya milk."
Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch soja; from the Satsuma dialectal Japanese そや (soya), which is the topicalized form of 醤油 (そい, soi) (cognate to standard Japanese 醤油 (しょうゆ, shōyu)), from Late Middle Japanese 醤油 (しやうゆ, shiyauyu), orthographic borrowing from Middle Chinese 醬油 (tsjàng-yuw), from 醬 (tsjangᴴ, “bean paste”) + 油 (“oil”).
Related phrases
More for "soya"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.