beet

noun

ˈbēt 

: a biennial garden plant (Beta vulgaris) of the amaranth family that includes several cultivars (such as Swiss chard and sugar beet) and that has thick edible leaves with long petioles and often swollen purplish-red roots

also : its root used especially as a vegetable, as a source of sugar, or for forage

Examples of beet in a Sentence

I've planted carrots, parsnips, and beets in the garden.

Recent Examples on the Web

Best flowers and vegetables to plant in May There are 16,000 seeds in this collection, including lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, squash and more. —Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 8 May 2025

Image On the ground floor of the library was a cinema, a cafeteria serving beet lasagna and carrot soup and 22 children playing games of chess at window-side tables. —Julia Whelan Emma Kehlbeck Jeremy McLennan, New York Times, 2 May 2025

Click here to sign up In Other News Branch out with more stories from the day: How bugs and beet juice could play roles in the race to replace artificial dyes in food ST. —Aris Folley, The Hill, 28 Apr. 2025

Some food manufacturers use concentrated forms of natural pigments found in fruits and plants -- such as beets, blackberries, paprika, saffron, tamarind and turmeric -- as dyes. —Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 23 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English bete, from Old English bēte, from Latin beta

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing beet

• beet armyworm
• beet leafhopper
• beet red
• red as a beet
• sugar beet

Rhymes for beet

• beat
• bleat
• cheat
• cleat
• creat
• deet
• eat
• feat
• feet
• fleet
• greet
• heat

Kids Definition

beet

noun

ˈbēt 

: a garden plant with thick long-stalked edible leaves and usually an enlarged purplish red root used as a vegetable, as a source of sugar, or as food for livestock

also : this root