choy sum
choy sum noun: a Chinese vegetable, a variety of Brassica rapa parachinensis subspecies, similar to bok choy but slimmer, with smooth green leaves and pale green stems, and clusters of flowers on the tips of the inner shoots.

Noun
choy sum (uncountable)
- A Chinese vegetable, a variety of Brassica rapa parachinensis subspecies, similar to bok choy but slimmer, with smooth green leaves and pale green stems, and clusters of flowers on the tips of the inner shoots.
- Added the chopped choy sum and stir it to release any excess water as steam. As the choy sum loses its water, add the chili and a good pinch of salt.2013, Fuchsia Dunlop, “Stir-fried chopped choy sum”, in Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 178
choy sum meaning in Indonesian and Vietnamese
choy sum in Indonesian
- vegetable
- sawi hijau, caisim
choy sum in Vietnamese
- vegetable
- cải ngồng
Synonyms of choy sum
Forms of choy sum
| alternative form | choi sum |
|---|
Origin of choy sum
Borrowed from Cantonese 菜心 (coi3 sam1, literally “vegetable heart”). Doublet of caixin.
Questions about choy sum
- What does choy sum mean?
- Choy sum means a Chinese vegetable, a variety of Brassica rapa parachinensis subspecies, similar to bok choy but slimmer, with smooth green leaves and pale green stems, and clusters of flowers on the tips of the inner shoots.
- What is choy sum in Indonesian?
- Choy sum in Indonesian is sawi hijau, caisim. See Choy sum meaning in Indonesian.
- What part of speech is choy sum?
- Choy sum is a noun.
Words near choy sum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: choy sum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “choy sum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/choy_sum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
