noun
rice
rys
noun
1
A cereal grass grown widely in flooded paddies, or the starchy seeds it produces that are eaten as a staple food.
"We had steamed rice with the curry."
"Rice is the staple food for more than half the world's population."
verb
1
To press soft food such as potatoes through a ricer, breaking it into small rice-sized pieces.
"Rice the potatoes before folding in the butter and cream."
How to Use Rice
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe grain eaten around the world as a staple, or (as a verb) to mash food into rice-sized bits with a ricer.
Common pairings
steamed rice
rice paddy
rice and beans
Word Forms
riced past tense, rices plural, Rices plural, rices plural, rices singular
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Etymology
From Old French ris, ultimately traced back through Greek and Persian to an Eastern language, possibly Sanskrit or an early Dravidian source — reflecting how far the crop travelled before reaching English.