noun
ketchup
KEHCH-uhp
noun
1
A thick, tangy tomato-based sauce commonly used as a condiment.
"He squeezed ketchup all over his chips."
"The diner keeps bottles of ketchup on every table."
verb
1
To put ketchup on something.
"She ketchuped her burger before taking a bite."
How to Use Ketchup
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe everyday tomato sauce found on tables everywhere; historically the word covered many kinds of sauce, not just tomato.
UK vs US
American English sometimes uses the older variant "catsup", though "ketchup" is now dominant in both the US and UK.
Easily confused with
catsup
Common pairings
tomato ketchup
bottle of ketchup
ketchup packet
Word Forms
ketchupped past tense, ketchups singular
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Etymology
Likely from a Hokkien Chinese word for fish sauce, passed through Malay into English in the late 1600s; early English "ketchup" referred to various savory sauces long before tomato ketchup became standard in the 19th century.