What does crabmeat mean?
Crabmeat is the edible flesh of a crab, picked or extracted from the shell and prized for its sweet, delicate flavor and tender texture. It appears throughout the world's cuisines: in American cooking it stars in Maryland-style crab cakes and she-crab soup, while Asian kitchens feature it in stir-fries, soups, and dumplings. The word is an uncountable noun written either as one word (crabmeat) or two (crab meat), depending on regional convention. Because crab is labor-intensive to pick by hand, crabmeat commands high prices, and it is sold in grades reflecting the size of the pieces — jumbo lump being the most expensive and intact, down to claw and special grades suited to soups and sauces. Fresh, pasteurized, and canned varieties make it accessible year-round, though connoisseurs reserve the freshest picked meat for dishes where its flavor stands alone.
nounThe edible flesh of a crab, typically picked from the shell and used in cooking.
- The edible flesh of a crab, removed from the shell and used as food.
"She stirred fresh crabmeat into the pasta just before serving."
"The chef folded delicate lumps of crabmeat into the chilled avocado soup."
"Canned crabmeat works well in this budget-friendly seafood chowder."
Rarely pluralized; the noun is normally treated as uncountable. A plural form may occasionally appear when referring to different types or grades of crabmeat.
"The market stocks several crabmeats, from jumbo lump to claw grade."
The most prized crabmeat, 'jumbo lump,' comes from just two large muscles in each blue crab's swimming legs — which is why it can cost more per pound than the whole crab itself.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of crabmeat
Crabmeat is a straightforward English compound of "crab," the crustacean, and "meat," here used in its older and broader sense of food or flesh. "Crab" derives from Old English "crabba," a Germanic word related to Dutch "krab" and Old Norse "krabbi," ultimately connected to words meaning "to scratch or claw." "Meat" comes from Old English "mete," which once meant food of any kind before narrowing to animal flesh. The compound arose as a natural descriptive formation whenever cooks needed to distinguish the crab's flesh from the shell, and parallel compounds like "lobster meat" follow the same pattern.
How crabmeat is actually used
"Crabmeat" (one word) is the standard spelling in American English; British usage more often writes it as two words, "crab meat," though both forms are widely understood. It is an uncountable noun in ordinary use — quantities are expressed as amounts ("a pound of crabmeat") rather than plurals. Grades such as "lump," "backfin," "flaked," and "claw" refer to the size and source of the meat pieces, with lump commanding the highest price.
Easily confused with crabmeat
Crayfish is the meat of a freshwater crustacean resembling a small lobster, whereas crabmeat comes specifically from crabs.