tuber

¹

[too-ber, tyoo-]

noun

1. Botany.,  a fleshy, usually oblong or rounded thickening or outgrowth, as the potato, of a subterranean stem or shoot, bearing minute scalelike leaves with buds or eyes in their axils from which new plants may arise.

2. Anatomy.,  a rounded swelling or protuberance; a tuberosity; a tubercle.

tuber

²

[too-ber, tyoo-]

noun

1. a person or thing that forms, installs, or operates with tubes.

2. Also called inner-tuber. a person who participates in the sport of tubing. tube.

tuber

/ ˈtjuːbə /

noun

1. a fleshy underground stem (as in the potato) or root (as in the dahlia) that is an organ of vegetative reproduction and food storage

2. anatomy a raised area; swelling

tuber

1. The thickened part of an underground stem of a plant, such as the potato, bearing buds from which new plant shoots arise.

2. Compare bulb corm rhizome runner

Other Word Forms

• tuberless adjective
• tuberoid adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tuber¹

1660–70; < Latin tūber bump, swelling. truffle

Origin of tuber²

First recorded in 1920–25; tube + -er ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of tuber¹

C17: from Latin tūber hump

Example Sentences

While bears are typically seen as apex predators, he says, black bears — the only wild bears left in California — are actually vegetarian-leaning omnivores, eating far more grass, tubers, roots and berries than meat.

From Los Angeles Times

The movie starts in fictional Chuglass, Idaho, the “potato chip capital of America,” where a giant tuber mascot looms over the town.

From Los Angeles Times

The distinctive tangy taste of attiéké comes from the cassava tubers mixed with fermented cassava, which gives it its unique flavour and texture.

From BBC

A team from the University of Illinois has engineered potato to be more resilient to global warming showing 30% increases in tuber mass under heatwave conditions.

From Science Daily

These defensive chemicals are found inside cells throughout the cassava plant's leaves, stem and tubers, where they usually sit idle.

From Salon