adobo

A1D2O1B3O1
Philippines/ʔaˈdobo/US/əˈdoʊboʊ/

noun

A Philippine dish in which pork or chicken is slowly cooked in a sauce including soy sauce, vinegar, and crushed garlic.

OriginSpanish adobo ← Old French adober ← Germanic →
UncommonScrabble 8
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounadobo (countable and uncountable, plural adobos)

plural adobos

  1. countableuncountableA Philippine dish in which pork or chicken is slowly cooked in a sauce including soy sauce, vinegar, and crushed garlic.
  2. countableuncountableA marinade.

    1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce

    2009 January 27, Susan Sampson, “Chipotle pulled chicken on corn spoon bread”, in Toronto Star

Origin

  1. Germanic
  2. Old Frenchadober“equip a horseman”
  3. Spanishadobo
  4. Englishadobo

From Spanish adobo, from Old French adober (“equip a horseman”) (perhaps via Catalan), from the same Germanic root as dab, dub. Compare French daube (earlier dobe (1571), adobbe (1598)), Italian dobba (1549), adobbo (1570).

More words from Spanish, Old French, Germanic

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Japanese アドボ
  • アドボ (adobo)Philippine dish
Polish adobo
  • adoboPhilippine dish
Spanish adobo
  • adoboPhilippine dish
Tagalog adobo
  • adoboPhilippine dish

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

abood
Cite this entry
APA

adobo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adobo

MLA

“adobo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adobo. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “adobo,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adobo.

Source: adobo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.