Yam

Quick meaning: Yam is a noun meaning Any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.

Meaning

Any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.

More Meanings

1. The edible, starchy, tuberous root of that plant, a tropical staple food.
2. (US) A sweet potato; a tuber from the species Ipomoea batatas.
3. (Scotland) A potato.
4. (New Zealand) An oca; a tuber from the species Oxalis tuberosa.
5. (Malaysia, Singapore) Taro.
6. An orange-brown colour, like the flesh of the yam.
7. (regional, Cumberland) Home.

Example Sentences

For quotations using this term, see Citations:yam.

“If I was that snake I’d just open my jaw and yam that fool up in one bite!”

“Stay, jailer, stay, and hear my woe,” repeating again and again, very softly, the line at the end of each stanza, “I am not mad, I am not mad.” Except she sang it: “I yam not mad, I yam not mad.”

Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams. But he thought that one could not begin too early. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.

Word Forms

• yams
• yamming
• yammed

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include ren, yum, yin, term, chief, financial.

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