Meaning & use
ketchup
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Meaning
noununcountable
A thick, sweet-and-sour sauce made from tomatoes, vinegar, and sugar, used on food.
Grammar: Uncountable; say 'some ketchup' or 'a bottle of ketchup', not 'a ketchup' or 'ketchups'.
Patterns
- a bottle of ketchup
- ketchup on something
- with ketchup
He put ketchup on his fries.
There's a bottle of ketchup in the fridge.
Do you want ketchup or mustard with your burger?
Common combinations
- tomato ketchup
- This brand of tomato ketchup is very popular.
- a bottle of ketchup
- We need a bottle of ketchup for the picnic.
- ketchup and fries
- Ketchup and fries are a classic pair.
- squirt ketchup
- Don't squirt ketchup all over the table.
Synonyms and how they differ
- catsup
- An older variant spelling used in some regions, especially in the US; 'ketchup' is now far more common.
- tomato sauce
- In some countries this means ketchup, but it can also mean a thinner cooked sauce served with pasta.
Commonly confused: ketchup or catsup?
ketchup vs catsup
The same sauce, just a different spelling; use 'ketchup' in most writing.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence.
Choose one answer.
'Ketchup' is uncountable, so it has no plural and takes no article: 'She put ketchup on her eggs.' 'A ketchup' and 'ketchups' are wrong because you cannot count it directly; say 'a bottle of ketchup' instead.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ketchup”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.