Cauliflower

How to spell cauliflower

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce cauliflower

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cauliflower mean?

1. nounA cabbage-related vegetable grown for its dense white edible flower head.

Cauliflower in a sentence

• She roasted a whole cauliflower with olive oil and garlic.

• The recipe blends steamed cauliflower into a creamy soup.

Where does cauliflower come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Cauliflower is literally a 'cabbage flower', and the name says exactly what the vegetable is: a cabbage relative grown for its dense, edible flower head. The first part comes from the Latin caulis, meaning 'cabbage' or 'stem', while the second part is the familiar English word flower, from Latin flos, floris, meaning 'blossom'. English borrowed the term in the late 1500s, most likely by way of the Italian cavolfiore and Modern Latin cauliflora, both built from the same two roots. Early English spellings were wonderfully unsettled, including 'cole-florie' and 'colieflorie', reflecting 'cole', the old word for cabbage that still survives in 'coleslaw'. The modern spelling settled on the Latin-looking cauli- prefix, which is why the first half ends in -li rather than the 'colly' sound many speakers expect; remembering caulis 'cabbage' fixes that tricky middle.

How the word is built

• cauli- (from Latin caulis: cabbage, stalk)
• flower (the flowering head)