Meaning & use

benne

noun·Advanced

Sesame seed, especially as used in traditional Southern American cooking; from West African origin.

See it in a sentence

The bakery sells benne wafers, a thin, crisp cookie made with toasted sesame seeds.

Her grandmother's recipe for benne cakes has been passed down for generations.

A note on using this word

Benne comes from a West African word for sesame and is preserved today mainly in the cuisine and dialect of the American South, especially in South Carolina.

Words with a similar meaning

sesame

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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