celeriac

noun

ce·​le·​ri·​ac sə-ˈler-ē-ˌak  -ˈlir- 

: a celery (Apium graveolens var. rapaceum) grown for its knobby edible root

Examples of celeriac in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Any meal at Paju should start with the chips and dip, for which celeriac is ground and mixed with mouth-warming peppers, then topped with a creamy potato foam and served with celeriac rice crackers. —Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 10 June 2025

In honor of the holiday, diners will be able to enjoy a sharing leg of lamb for four, salt-aged beef or celeriac Wellington, alongside traditional accompanies. —Rachel Dube, Forbes.com, 16 Apr. 2025

The menu changes with the seasons but previous bites have included Yakama sturgeon with celeriac and arugula, Alaskan pink singing scallop en papillote, and sweetbread with leeks and yellow foot mushrooms. —Nicole Kliest, Vogue, 7 Mar. 2025

Cozy up with warm plates, including black truffle soup with celeriac purée and parmesan tuile; and goat cheese ravioli with fromage blanc and English spinach. —Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, Forbes, 22 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

altered from celery; the origin of suffixal -ac is obscure

Note: Word apparently introduced by the English gardener and landscaper Stephen Switzer (1682?-1745) in A compendious, but more particular method, than has ever yet been published, for the raising Italian brocoli, Spanish cardoon, celeriac, fenochi, and other foreign kitchen vegetables, so as to make them dishes more generally used than hithero they have been (London, first edition 1728 or 1729). Switzer claimed to have received celeriac seeds from Alexandria, but gives no account of the source of the word.

First Known Use

1743, in the meaning defined above