What Does Ketchup Mean?
Ketchup is a thick, red sauce made from tomatoes. People put it on chips, burgers and eggs.
We put ketchup on our chips.
Please pass the ketchup.
It is a noun. We use it as an uncountable word: some ketchup, a bottle of ketchup.
🔊 Pronunciation
KETCH-up
Two parts. The first part is loud: KETCH. It sounds like catch with a short e. The second part, up, is quiet.
🗣️ Natural Examples
Leo squeezed too much ketchup on his plate.
Could I have a little ketchup, please?
The ketchup bottle was almost empty.
Mia dipped her chips in ketchup.
🛠️ How to Use It
Ketchup is uncountable, so you do not say a ketchup or two ketchups in ordinary speech.
- Use some, a little or a lot of: some ketchup, a lot of ketchup.
- Count it with a container: a bottle of ketchup, a packet of ketchup.
- Tomato ketchup is the full name. Most people just say ketchup.
- In some places, people call it tomato sauce. Check the label if you are unsure.
🤝 Common Word Partners
- a bottle of ketchup
- tomato ketchup
- ketchup and chips
- squeeze the ketchup
- ketchup on the side
- a packet of ketchup
👯 Similar and Related Words
- sauce: any thick liquid that goes with food. Ketchup is one kind.
- condiment: something you add to food after it is cooked, like ketchup or mustard.
- mustard: a yellow sauce with a strong taste.
- mayonnaise: a creamy white sauce made from eggs and oil.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Spelling. Both ketchup and catsup are used, but ketchup is the usual one.
❌ ketchap
✅ ketchup (or catsup)
It is uncountable.
❌ Two ketchups, please.
✅ Two packets of ketchup, please.
Stress the first part.
❌ ketch-UP
✅ KETCH-up
💬 In a Conversation
Sam: What is the oldest ketchup?
Mia: It is not made from tomatoes.
Sam: What?
Mia: Many scholars think it began as a sauce from China. The tomato came much later.
🕵️ Where Does It Come From?
The word has a long journey, and some of it is still debated.
- Many scholars think ketchup comes from a word for a fish sauce used in southern China. In one dialect it sounded like kê-chiap or kôe-chiap.
- Traders then carried the sauce and the word to Europe. One writer says it is unclear whether English took the word from the Chinese or from a similar word in Indonesia.
- The first English recipe that we know of is from 1727. It was spelled katchup, and it used vinegar and anchovies, not tomatoes.
- Soon there were many kinds of ketchup. Some were made with mushrooms or walnuts. The word meant "a spiced sauce" in general.
- The first known recipe for tomato ketchup is from 1812, in the United States.
- A company began to sell tomato ketchup in 1876, and tomato slowly became the usual kind.
The idea that British traders first met the sauce in Indonesia is a guess, so treat it as an idea, not a fact.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Think of ketchup as a word with a passport.
It started in southern China, travelled by ship, changed its meaning and ended up on a plate of chips. The word moved much farther than the sauce itself.