kombu
kom·bu/ˈkɒmbuː/noun
kombu is a noun meaning “Edible kelp (“a type of brown seaweed”) (from the class Phaeophyceae) used in East Asian cuisine” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled K-O-M-B-U and has 2 syllables (kom·bu), and it appears about once in every 19 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of kombu is kombus.
What does kombu mean?
noun
- 1
Edible kelp (“a type of brown seaweed”) (from the class Phaeophyceae) used in East Asian cuisine.
- 2
A kind of long horn instrument from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce kombu?
- US /ˈkɒmbuː/
Kombu has 2 syllables, split kom·bu in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-kombu.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of kombu
- konbu
- kombus plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is kombu?
Kombu appears about once in every 19 million words in written English, the 130,282nd 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).
Kombu in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense edible kelp used in East Asian cuisine:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | konbu |
| German | Kombu |
| Portuguese | kombu |
| Spanish | kombu |
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 kombu come from?
From Japanese 昆布 (こんぶ, konbu).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).