Meaning & use
lovage
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A tall garden plant with glossy green leaves and a strong flavor like celery, used in soups, salads and stews.
Grammar: Uncountable when it is the herb in food: add some lovage. Countable for a plant: two lovage plants.
Patterns
- a sprig of lovage
- lovage in something
She added a few chopped leaves of lovage to the potato soup.
Lovage grows so tall that it needs a corner of the garden to itself.
A little lovage gives the stew a deep, celery-like flavor.
Common combinations
- fresh lovage
- Fresh lovage is sharper than the dried kind.
- lovage leaves
- Chop the lovage leaves finely before adding them.
- lovage soup
- Lovage soup is a spring favorite in some countries.
- grow lovage
- It is easy to grow lovage in a sunny garden.
- sprig of lovage
- Garnish the dish with a sprig of lovage.
Synonyms and how they differ
- celery leaf
- Celery leaf has a similar but milder taste, so it is a common substitute when lovage is not available.
- herb
- Herb is a general term for any leafy plant used in cooking, while lovage is one specific herb.
Word family
- lovage seed noun
- the seed of the plant, used as a spice
- herb noun
- a plant used for flavor
Commonly confused: lovage or love?
lovage vs love
Despite the spelling, lovage has nothing to do with love: the name comes from an old word for the plant, and it is pronounced with a short u sound.
Practice
Why do cooks usually use lovage in small amounts?
Choose one answer.
Lovage has a strong, celery-like flavor, so a little goes a long way. It is not a sweet or tasteless plant.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lovage”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.