a beverage made from cocoa powder and milk and sugar; usually drunk hot
"After finishing her homework, Sarah enjoyed a warm cup of cocoa to comfort herself on that chilly evening."
powder of ground roasted cacao beans with most of the fat removed
"I added a spoonful of cocoa to the warm milk to make a simple hot drink."
The dried and partially fermented fatty seeds of the cacao tree from which chocolate is made.
"The old botanical text lists cocoa as an alternative spelling of coco to describe a certain palm tree."
Alternative spelling of coco.
In plain English: Cocoa is the powder made from roasted cacao beans that people use to make hot chocolate and other sweet treats.
"She added some fresh cocoa to her hot drink for warmth on this chilly evening."
Usage: Use "cocoa" specifically for the ground beans used in baking or hot drinks rather than solid bars of chocolate. It also serves as an adjective describing shades similar to dark coffee or rich soil tones.
Of a light to medium brown colour, like that of cocoa powder.
"The waiter poured the milk into her tea until it turned the perfect shade of rich cocoa."
"The cocoa powder made her hot chocolate look extra rich and dark."
an object-oriented programming API for macOS
"Developers often use Cocoa to build native applications for Apple devices."
The word "cocoa" entered English via a mix-up between the plant name and the shell shape known as "coconut," which was famously cemented in usage by Samuel Johnson's dictionary. Although it shares its roots with the Spanish cacahuatl from Classical Nahuatl, this specific spelling variation arose later to distinguish itself from the original term for cacao beans.