What does celery mean?
Celery is a crunchy, green vegetable cultivated for its long, ribbed leafstalks, which are eaten both raw and cooked. A member of the parsley family, it has a mild, slightly bitter, savory flavor that makes it a staple of salads, soups, stews, and snacks — most famously paired with peanut butter or cream cheese, or combined with onion and carrot as the aromatic base known as mirepoix. The word can refer to the whole plant or to the harvested stalks, which are sold in bunches. Celery carries strongly wholesome connotations: it is low in calories and high in water and fiber, so it appears often in dieting and healthy-eating contexts. Its leaves and seeds are also used for seasoning, yielding products such as celery salt. Though humble today, celery was once considered an elegant delicacy.
A cultivated plant (Apium graveolens) of the parsley family, with thick, crisp, ribbed leafstalks eaten as a vegetable.
"The recipe calls for two ribs of celery, finely sliced."
Usually uncountable when referring to the vegetable in general; 'sticks' (British) or 'stalks/ribs' (American) serve as natural partitives.
The edible leafstalks of this plant, used raw or cooked, especially as a flavoring base in soups and sauces.
"Onion, carrot, and celery form the classic flavoring base of French cuisine."
Rarely used; celery is almost always treated as an uncountable mass noun. The plural appears only when referring to distinct varieties or individual plants of the crop.
"The market stall offered several celeries, from pale blanched heads to slender green ones."
Celery was once served at lavish Victorian dinner parties as a prized delicacy, displayed in special glass 'celery vases' at the center of the table.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of celery
The word celery entered English in the mid-seventeenth century, borrowed from French céleri, which itself came from a northern Italian dialectal form (Lombard seleri). These ultimately trace back to Late Latin selinon, adopted from Greek selinon, meaning 'parsley' — reflecting the plant's close botanical kinship with that herb. English parsley descends from the same Greek root via Old French, making it a true etymological cousin of celery.
Related word forms
How celery is actually used
An everyday, neutral word used in cooking, shopping, and health contexts. In British English, individual stalks are commonly called 'sticks'; American English more often says 'stalks' or 'ribs'. The uncountable form refers to the vegetable generally, while countable use ('a celery') is rare.
Easily confused with celery
Salary means fixed regular payment for work; celery is the vegetable — the two sound similar but share nothing else.