noun

tapioca

tap-ee-OH-kuh/ˌtæpiˈəʊkə/

Starch extracted from cassava roots and used in food.

Dry white tapioca pearls sit beside cooked translucent ones and their cassava source.

A simple ingredient-and-food still life: recognizable cassava roots beside a small bowl of dry white tapioca pearls and a clear bowl of cooked translucent tapioca pearls, showing both the starch food and its plant source.

Etymology

The Tupi components combine “residue” with “squeeze out,” naming the juice of pressed cassava. The food's name therefore points to extracting material from the root rather than to the plant itself.

In context

NDSUExtension45:57

you will warm up your cherries with the cornstarch or minute tapioca however it is your thickening it

Field to Fork 2019: Cold Fruits for Cold Climates

More examples

This gluten-free bread contains rice flour and tapioca.
The tapioca pearls soften as they cook.
Stir the tapioca into the milk before heating it.

Similar words

cornstarch: A food thickener made from corn rather than cassava.
arrowroot: Another cooking starch, extracted from arrowroot plants rather than cassava.