herb

herb — noun

1. a plant grown for its leaves, seeds, or flowers that people add to food for extr

1.名詞A2
釋義

a plant grown for its leaves, seeds, or flowers that people add to food for extra taste or use as a natural remedy for illness

例句

Salma added fresh herbs to the soup just before serving it.

collocation: fresh herbs

In many traditional remedies, herbs are dried and then boiled to make tea.

passive: are dried and then boiled

同義詞
  • potherb

    rare and technical; refers to any leafy plant cooked and eaten as a vegetable or flavouring

  • aromatic plant

    emphasises strong scent rather than specific culinary or medicinal use

反義詞
  • spice

    comes from seeds, bark, or roots rather than leaves; nearly always sold dried

用法筆記

In everyday conversation, herb usually refers to plants used for cooking or medicine. When talking about food, herbs are typically fresh or dried leaves — contrast with spice, which comes from seeds, bark, or roots and is nearly always dried.

常見錯誤

❌I added some spices to the pasta sauce like basil and parsley.
✅I added some herbs to the pasta sauce like basil and parsley.
💡Basil and parsley are herbs, not spices. Spices come from seeds (cumin), bark (cinnamon), or roots (ginger).
❌The medicine is made from medical herbs.
✅The medicine is made from medicinal herbs.
💡Medicines relate to treatment of illness, so the adjective is medicinal, not medical.

2. a plant that has a soft green stem rather than a hard woody one, and that usuall

2.名詞B2
釋義

a plant that has a soft green stem rather than a hard woody one, and that usually dies back to the ground after its flowering season

例句

Arjun learned in biology class that herbs have soft stems that never turn woody.

pattern: that-clause after learned

Unlike trees and shrubs, herbs die back to the ground every winter and regrow in spring.

contrast with: trees and shrubs

同義詞
  • herbaceous plant

    the formal botanical term for the same category; commonly used in garden writing

反義詞
  • tree

    a tall woody plant with a single main trunk that persists year after year

  • shrub

    a woody plant with multiple stems that stays alive above ground through winter

用法筆記

Common in botany and horticulture textbooks. Trees and shrubs are the opposite category — they have woody stems that persist above ground year after year. Many culinary herbs (sense 1) are also botanical herbs, but not all: rosemary and thyme, for example, have woody stems and are technically shrubs, even though their leaves are used as culinary herbs.

常見錯誤

❌A rose bush is a herb because it has flowers.
✅A rose bush is not a herb
💡it is a shrub because its stems are woody.' — The botanical classification depends on stem type, not on whether the plant flowers.
❌Basil is a herb in both the cooking and garden sense.
✅True, but note that rosemary is only a herb in the cooking sense
💡botanically it is a shrub with woody stems.