Herb

How to spell herb

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce herb

What does herb mean?

1. nounA plant whose leaves or seeds are used to flavour food or to make medicines.

Herb in a sentence

• She snipped a fresh herb from the windowsill pot to season the soup.

• The recipe calls for one dried herb stirred into the sauce.

Where does herb come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word travelled into English from the Latin herba, which literally meant 'grass' or 'green leafy plant', covering everything from pasture grass to garden greens. It reached Middle English in the 1200s by way of Old French, where it was spelled 'erbe', and for centuries English writers happily wrote it without the 'h' to match that French pronunciation. The silent letter was later restored on the page by scholars who wanted the spelling to honour its Latin root, which is why the 'h' sits there today even though many speakers do not voice it. That history explains the lasting dialect split: British and Canadian speakers tend to sound the 'h', while American speakers usually keep it silent, closer to the older French way. The same herba root also gave us 'herbivore' (a plant eater) and 'herbaceous', so the family is easy to recognise once you spot the buried Latin grass.

How the word is built

• herb (from Latin herba: grass, green plant, leafy growth)