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arrowroot

ar·row·root/ˈɛɹoʊˌɹut/noun

arrowroot is a noun meaning “Maranta arundinacea from the Marantaceae family, a large perennial herb native to the Caribbean area with green leaves about 15 centimeters long” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-R-R-O-W-R-O-O-T and has 3 syllables (ar·row·root), and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of arrowroot is arrowroots.

What does arrowroot mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Maranta arundinacea from the Marantaceae family, a large perennial herb native to the Caribbean area with green leaves about 15 centimeters long.

  2. 2

    Usually preceded by an attributive word: some other plant whose rhizomes are used to prepare a substance similar to arrowroot (sense 3), such as Zamia integrifolia (Florida arrowroot) or Pueraria montana var. lobata (Japanese arrowroot or kudzu).

  3. 3

    A starchy substance obtained from the rhizomes of an arrowroot plant used as a thickener.

  4. 4

    Other plants with similar appearance or properties, such as common yarrow (Achillea millefolium)|

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce arrowroot?

  • UK /ˈæɹə(ʊ)ɹuːt/
  • US /ˈɛɹoʊˌɹut/
  • US /ˈæɹoʊˌɹut/

Arrowroot has 3 syllables, split ar·row·root in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-arrowroot.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of arrowroot

  • arrowroots plural
  • arrow-root

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is arrowroot?

Arrowroot appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 103,949th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Arrowroot in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanPfeilwurz (Maranta arundinacea), Pfeilwurzelmehl, Arrowroot (starchy substance)
Portugueseararuta (Maranta arundinacea)
Spanishmaranta, sagú, guapo, planta obediente, yuquilla, maranda (Maranta arundinacea)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does arrowroot come from?

From Lokono aru-aru (literally “meal of meals”), influenced by arrow + root because the plant’s “roots” (more accurately rhizomes) are used on wounds from poison darts to absorb the poison.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).