cardamom

• cardamon

Late Middle English, from Old French cardamome or Latin cardamōmum, from Ancient Greek καρδάμωμον (kardámōmon).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑː.də.məm/, /ˈkɑː.də.mən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑɹ.də.məm/, /ˈkɑɹ.dəˌmɑm/

cardamom (countable and uncountable, plural cardamoms)

1. An herb, native to India (Elettaria cardamomum).
3. Seed of Elettaria cardamomum, used as a medicine and spice, especially in curry powder.
   • 2026 January 25, Joy Saha, “Cardamom, the spice you’re missing”, in Salon‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 January 2026:

     As I’ve gotten older, that vitriol slowly transformed into acceptance, then adoration. The more I cooked at home and explored South Asian cuisine, the more I realized how important cardamom is.

4. (uncommon, inexact) Synonym of grains of paradise, seeds or seed capsules of Aframomum melegueta, of East Africa.

• (spice): elaichi, queen of spices

• black cardamom
• Cardamom Mountains
• green cardamom
• large cardamom

• “cardamom, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1888.
• Weeks, Hittite Vocabulary: An Anatolian Appendix to Buck‘sDictionary of SelectedSynonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages

• “cardamom”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Borrowed from Latin cardamōmum, from Ancient Greek καρδάμωμον (kardámōmon).

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈom]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

cardamom m (plural cardamoms)

1. cardamom

• “cardamom”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Borrowed from French cardamome.

• IPA^(key): /kar.daˈmom/

cardamom n (uncountable)

1. cardamom

• “cardamom”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026