Meaning & use
laab
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A spicy Southeast Asian dish of minced meat or fish mixed with herbs, lime juice, and toasted rice powder.
Grammar: Countable when talking about a serving or a type: a chicken laab, three laabs. Uncountable when talking about the food in general: I love laab.
Patterns
- a laab
- chicken/pork/beef laab
- laab with something
We ordered a pork laab and sticky rice.
The laab was very spicy, with lots of lime and mint.
She made a vegetarian laab using mushrooms instead of meat.
Word forms
| plural | laabs |
|---|
Common combinations
- chicken laab
- Chicken laab is one of the most popular dishes in the restaurant.
- spicy laab
- If you like hot food, try the spicy laab.
- laab with sticky rice
- In Laos, laab with sticky rice is a classic combination.
- order laab
- We always order laab when we eat at that Thai place.
Synonyms and how they differ
- larb
- Larb is a very common alternative spelling of the same dish, especially in American English.
- laap
- Laap is another spelling, often used for the Lao version of the dish.
Commonly confused: laab or lab?
laab vs lab
Lab is short for laboratory. Laab is a food; they sound similar but are completely different.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'laab' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Laab is a dish, so it fits in a food context like ordering it for lunch. Option A confuses laab with lab (laboratory). Option C treats laab as a person. Option D invents a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “laab”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.