Tea in Scrabble Dictionary

Valid words made from Tea

You can make 12 words from 'tea' in our Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

• 3 letters words from 'tea'
• 2 letters words from 'tea'

3 letters words from 'tea'

ATE 3	EAT 3
ETA 3	TAE 3
TEA 3

2 letters words from 'tea'

AE 2	AT 2
EA 2	ET 2
TA 2	TE 2

Definitions and meaning of tea

tea

Etymology 1

Circa 1650, from Dutch thee, from Min Nan 茶 (tê) (Amoy dialect), from Old Chinese, ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la (“leaf, tea”).

Introduced to English and other Western European languages by the Dutch East India Company, who sourced their tea in Amoy; compare Malay teh along the same trade route. Doublet of chai and cha (and, distantly, lahpet), from same Proto-Sino-Tibetan root; see discussion of cognates.

Alternative forms

• tay

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: tē, IPA^(key): /ti/, [tʰi]
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tē, IPA^(key): /tiː/, [tʰiː]
• Rhymes: -iː
• Homophones: T, te, tee, ti

Noun

tea (countable and uncountable, plural teas)

1. (uncountable) The tea plant (Camellia sinensis); (countable) a variety of this plant.

2. (uncountable) The dried leaves or buds of the tea plant; (countable) a variety of such leaves.

3. (uncountable) The drink made by infusing these dried leaves or buds in hot water.
4. (uncountable) Any similar drink made by infusing parts of various other plants.

5. (uncountable) Meat stock served as a hot drink.

6. (countable, Commonwealth of Nations, northern US) A cup or (East Asia, Southern US) glass of any of these drinks, often with milk, sugar, lemon, and/or tapioca pearls.
7. (uncountable, Britain) A light midafternoon meal, typically but not necessarily including tea.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 23:

     Tea was a very special institution, revolving as it did around the ceremony and worship of Toast. In [public schools] where alcohol, tobacco and drugs were forbidden, it was essential that something should take their place as a powerful and public totem of virility and cool. Toast, for reasons lost in time, was the substance chosen.

8. (uncountable, Commonwealth of Nations) Synonym of supper, the main evening meal, whether or not it includes tea.

9. (cricket) The break in play between the second and third sessions.
10. (slang, dated) Synonym of marijuana.
    • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin 2010, page 103:

      So they were evidence. Evidence of what? That a man occasionally smoked a stick of tea, a man who looked as if any touch of the exotic would appeal to him. On the other hand lots of tough guys smoked marijuana […] .

    • 1946, Mezz Mezzrow & al., Really the Blues, Payback Press, 1999, page 74:

      Tea puts a musician in a real masterly sphere, and that's why so many jazzmen have used it.

    • 1947 March 11, William Burroughs, letter:

      Here in Texas possession of tea is a felony calling for 2 years.

11. (slang, especially gay slang and African-American Vernacular) Information, especially gossip.
    • 2015, Sonya Shuman, Doors of the Church Are Open: Smoke & Mirrors by Sonya Shuman:

      "What's the tea on you and China? Where she at Alicia? You should know where ya baby at."

Usage notes

In most places tea is assumed to mean hot tea, while in the southern United States, it is assumed to mean iced tea.

Synonyms

• (plant): tea plant, tea tree, tea bush
• (leaves): tea leaves
• (beverage): see Thesaurus:tea
• (beverages similar to tea): herb tea, herbal tea, infusion, tisane
• (a light meal): see afternoon tea & Thesaurus:meal

Hyponyms

• (beverage): see Thesaurus:tea

Derived terms

Descendants

• Gullah: tea
• Jamaican Creole: tea
• → Abenaki: ti
• → Chickasaw: tii'
• → Cocopa: ṭi·
• → Cornish: té
• → Cree:

  Canadian syllabics: ᑎᕀ (tiy)

  Latin: tiy

• → Inuktitut: ᑏ (tii)
• → Irish: tae
• → Maori: tī
• → Malecite-Passamaquoddy: ti
• → Mikasuki: ti'g'tlo'q, ji'gitlo'q (“kettle”) (from "tea kettle")
• → Panamint: tii
• → Telugu: టీ (ṭī)
• → Unami: ti
• → Welsh: te

Translations

See tea/translations § Noun.

Verb

tea (third-person singular simple present teas, present participle teaing, simple past and past participle teaed)

1. To drink tea.
2. To take afternoon tea (the light meal).
   • 1877, The Bicycling Times and Tourist's Gazette (page 38)

     The wind was high and the hills ditto, and both being against us we were late in reaching Hitchin (30 from Cambridge), so giving up the idea of reaching Oxford we toiled on through Luton, on to Dunstable (47), where we teaed moderately […]

Etymology 2

From Chinese 茶 (“tea”).

Noun

tea (plural teas)

1. A moment, a historical unit of time from China, about the amount of time needed to quickly drink a traditional cup of tea. It is now found in Chinese-language historical fiction.

Usage notes

This term is found in English translations of Chinese-language historical fiction, where it is used to give the work an ancient Chinese feel.

References

Anagrams

• -ate, AET, Até, Atë, ETA, a.e.t., aet, ate, eat, eta, æt.

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Basque

Noun

tea

1. absolutive singular of te

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Ese

Noun

tea

1. feces; excrement

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Estonian

Verb

tea

1. present indicative connegative of teadma
2. second-person singular imperative of teadma

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Galician

Etymology 1

13th century (Cantigas de Santa Maria). From Old Galician and Old Portuguese tea, from Latin tēla. Cognate with Portuguese teia and Spanish tela.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtea̝/

Noun

tea f (plural teas)

1. (uncountable) cloth
2. (countable) a piece of cloth
   • 1326, Antonio López Ferreiro (ed.), Galicia Histórica. Colección diplomática. Santiago: Tipografía Galaica, page 300:

     It. mando que todollos lenços delgados et teas de rens que os tome Garcia perez. et que faça delles fazer uestimentas para o altar de Sta Maria.

     Item, I command that every fine linen and the clothes of Reims to be taken by Garcia Perez, who should make them into clothes for the altar of Saint Mary

3. spiderweb

   Synonym: arañeira

4. canvas

   Synonym: lenzo

5. film (skin)

   Synonym: película

Derived terms

• tear

Etymology 2

13th century (Cantigas de Santa Maria). From Latin taeda, from Ancient Greek δάος (dáos, “torch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtea̝/

Noun

tea f (plural teas)

1. torch

   Synonyms: facha, fachuzo

References

• “tea” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “tea” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “tea” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “tea” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “tea” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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Hungarian

Etymology

From Dutch thee, from Min Nan 茶 (tê, “tea”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɛɒ], [ˈtɛjɒ]
• Hyphenation: tea
• Rhymes: -ɒ, -jɒ

Noun

tea (plural teák)

1. tea

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

• tea in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

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Maori

Adjective

tea

1. white

Derived terms

• Aotearoa

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Rapa Nui

Noun

tea

1. dawn

Derived terms

• tea tea

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Sedang

Noun

tea

1. water
2. body of water: river, lake, etc
3. liquid
4. wine

References

• Kenneth D. Smith, Sedang Dictionary (2012), page 375

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• teda (rare)

Etymology

From Latin taeda.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtea/, [ˈt̪e.a]

Noun

tea f (plural teas)

1. torch (a stick with a flame on one end, used chiefly as a light source)

   Synonym: antorcha
2. (colloquial) intoxication, drunkenness

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:borrachera

Further reading

• “tea” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Source: wiktionary.org

• a ball game involving a ball thrown against a highly sprung net.
  (source: Collins Scrabble Dictionary)