Meaning & use
paddy rice
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
Rice that is grown in shallow, flooded fields called paddies, which is the main way rice is cultivated in much of Asia.
Grammar: No plural and no article needed: paddy rice grows well in warm, wet climates.
Patterns
- grow paddy rice
- paddy rice in somewhere
Farmers in the delta plant paddy rice in early summer.
Paddy rice needs a lot of water during most of its growth.
Much of the country's paddy rice is harvested in the autumn.
noununcountabletechnical
Harvested rice grains that are still inside their tough outer husk and have not yet been milled.
Grammar: Used as a mass noun, usually in trade or farming: a tonne of paddy rice.
Patterns
- mill paddy rice
- dry paddy rice
The mill buys paddy rice from nearby farmers and removes the husks.
Paddy rice must be dried before it can be stored safely.
Prices for paddy rice rose after the poor harvest.
Common combinations
- grow paddy rice
- Many small farms in the region grow paddy rice.
- paddy rice field
- A paddy rice field is flooded for much of the season.
- harvest paddy rice
- Workers harvest paddy rice by hand on the steep terraces.
- mill paddy rice
- They mill paddy rice to produce white rice.
- paddy rice cultivation
- Paddy rice cultivation uses a great deal of water.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wet rice
- Wet rice stresses the flooded growing method, while paddy rice can also mean the unhusked grain.
- rough rice
- Rough rice names only the unmilled grain with its husk, not the crop growing in a field.
- irrigated rice
- Irrigated rice focuses on watering fields by channels, which is a farming term rather than a general name for the crop.
Opposites
Word family
- paddy noun
- a flooded field where rice is grown
- rice noun
- the grain and the plant
- ricefield noun
- a field in which rice grows
- unhusked adjective
- still covered by its outer husk
Commonly confused: paddy rice or paddy field?
paddy rice vs paddy field
A paddy field is the flooded land itself, while paddy rice is the crop or the grain.
Practice
Which of these describes paddy rice most accurately?
Choose one answer.
Paddy rice means rice from flooded paddies or the grain still in its husk. White rice is milled, and dry upland rice is the opposite of the paddy method.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “paddy rice”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.