congee
Congee (noun) means a savoury rice porridge, often simmered with vegetables, meat, or fish, popular across East and Southeast Asia. Example: “She had a bowl of chicken congee for breakfast.”
How to use congee
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA soft, savoury rice porridge eaten in many Asian cuisines, especially for breakfast or when sick.
This is by far the modern, commonly used meaning in English; the older sense meaning "formal leave/permission" is now archaic.
Word forms
- Plural
- congees
- Third person singular
- congees
- Past tense
- congeed
Fill the gap
Can you complete this real example?
She had a bowl of chicken _____ for breakfast.
Etymology
From late Middle English congie, from Old French congié, congiet (modern French congé), from Latin commeātus (“passage, permission to leave”), from commeō (“to go and come”), from con- + meō (“to go, to pass”). Figurative senses generally borrowed from developments in French congé.
