ketchup
/ˈkɛt͡ʃ.əp/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈkɛt͡ʃ.ʊp/
ketchup noun: such a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes, but with mushrooms, fish, etc.). This is the older meaning. Also the ellipsis of tomato ketchup.
Noun
ketchup (countable and uncountable, plural ketchups)
- Such a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes, but with mushrooms, fish, etc.). This is the older meaning.
- The bottles, however, were port bottles, but contained mushroom ketchup; […]1883, Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, page lxxxiii
- To accompany meat, we prepare fruit ketchups and rhubarb chutney.2003, Inns and Bed and Breakfasts in Quebec 2003, Ulysses Travel Guides, page 46
Verb
ketchup (third-person singular simple present ketchups, present participle ketchupping, simple past and past participle ketchupped)
- To cover with ketchup.
- It strikes me she's "ketchupped" the lot! I won't touch a morsel!1867, John Maddison Morton, Aunt Charlotte's maid: a farce in one act
- "Well," said Chuck, ketchupping his hamburger, "I'd rather do without King Lear than put up with the human agony it sprang out of. I'd rather not have the Eroica than have the big bloody conqueror it tries to immortalize."1973, Horizon, page 15
Also used as
ketchup is also the ellipsis of tomato ketchup.
ketchup meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
ketchup in Hindi
- tomato-vinegar based sauce
- केचप kecap
ketchup in Tamil
- கெட்ச்அப், கெட்சப்
ketchup in Marathi
- tomato-vinegar based sauce
- केचप kecap
ketchup in Urdu
- tomato-vinegar based sauce
- کیچپ kecap
More languagesFewer languages
- ketchup in Bengali
- কেচাপ kecap
- ketchup in Telugu
- కెచప్, కెట్చప్, కెచ్అప్
- ketchup in Malayalam
- കെച്ചപ്പ്, കെച്ച്അപ്പ്, കെച്ചുപ്പ്
- ketchup in Kannada
- ಕೆಚಪ್, ಕೆಚ್ಅಪ್, ಕೆಚುಪ್
- ketchup in Gujarati
- કેચઅપ, કેચપ
- ketchup in Odia
- କେଚପ୍, କେଚ୍ଅପ୍, କେଚପ୍ କରିବା
- ketchup in Nepali
- केचअप, केचप, केचाप
- ketchup in Tagalog
- ketsap
- ketchup in Arabic
- عَصِير الْبَنْدُورَة ʕaṣīr al-bandūra, كَتْشَب katšab
- ketchup in Malay
- sos tomato, saus tomat
- ketchup in Indonesian
- saus tomat
- ketchup in Persian
- کچاپ kečâp
- ketchup in Thai
- เค็ตชัป két-chàp
- ketchup in Vietnamese
- nước xốt cà chua, tương cà
Examples of ketchup in a sentence
- Could you do me a burger with mayonnaise instead of ketchup?
- Sorry for pouring ketchup on your clean white shirt! - Oh, don't worry, it does not matter.
- Yo sandwich has only bacon in it. Want some ketchup on that?
Synonyms of ketchup
- tomato catsup
Forms of ketchup
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ketchups |
| alternative form | catchup |
| alternative form | catsup |
| alternative form | katsup |
| alternative form (obsolete) | katjap |
| alternative form (obsolete) | kechap |
| alternative form (obsolete) | ketsup |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ketchups |
| present participle | ketchupping |
| past participle | ketchupped |
| past | ketchupped |
Origin of ketchup
Uncertain, but probably ultimately from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap, “fish sauce”) via Malay kecap ~ kicap “any dark clear sauce from soy, fish etc”, though the precise path is unclear – there are related words in various Chinese languages. Various other theories exist – see Ketchup: Etymology for extended discussion. First appeared in English in the late 17th century in reference to a Southeast Asian sauce encountered by British traders and sailors. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that it was commonly used in the 18th century to refer to a variety of similar sauces with varying ingredients—"anchovies, mushrooms, walnuts, and oysters being particularly popular"—but by the late 19th century the current tomato ketchup became the most popular form. Catsup (earlier catchup) is an alternative Anglicization, still in use in the U.S., though it is now somewhat rare.
Words formed from ketchup
Phrases with ketchup
Questions about ketchup
- What does ketchup mean?
- Ketchup means such a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes, but with mushrooms, fish, etc.). This is the older meaning.
- What is ketchup in Hindi?
- Ketchup in Hindi is केचप (kecap). See Ketchup meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is ketchup?
- Ketchup can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ketchup?
- Ketchup is pronounced /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.əp/.
- What is the plural of ketchup?
- The plural of ketchup is ketchups.
Words near ketchup in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ketchup (page history and authors); ketchup (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ketchup (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ketchup (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ketchup (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ketchup (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ketchup (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ketchup (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ketchup.ogg, En-ketchup.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ketchup.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ketchup. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.