Word.ws English Dictionary

tonka

tonka noun: a flavoring or fragrance used in foodstuffs and perfumes, derived from the tonka bean which contains coumarin.

tonka: a flavoring or fragrance used in foodstuffs and perfumes, derived from the tonka bean which...
Image: Mecredis / Fred Benenson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

tonka (uncountable)

  1. A flavoring or fragrance used in foodstuffs and perfumes, derived from the tonka bean which contains coumarin.
    • When grated into desserts or infused into syrups, they impart a flavour so transcendent, tonka has been dubbed the most delicious ingredient you’ve never heard of.2017, Zaria Gorvett, The delicious flavour with a toxic secret, BBC
    • Her favourite combinations involve pine, boletus mushroom and sake, or celery, tonka and amber ale.2021, Agence France-Presse, Michelin awards star to vegan restaurant for the first time in France, The Guardian

Forms of tonka

alternative formtonca
alternative formtonqua
alternative formtonquin

Origin of tonka

Likely from Guyanese Creole English tonka, from a Tupian language, perhaps Kari'na tonka.

Phrases with tonka

Questions about tonka

What does tonka mean?
Tonka means a flavoring or fragrance used in foodstuffs and perfumes, derived from the tonka bean which contains coumarin.
What part of speech is tonka?
Tonka is a noun.

Words near tonka in the dictionary

  1. tonitruous
  2. Tonja
  3. tonjon
  4. tonjons
  5. tonk
  6. tonka
  7. tonka bean
  8. tonka beans
  9. tonkatsu
  10. tonkatsu sauce
  11. tonkatsu sauces

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tonka (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: “tonka.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tonka. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.