Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A creamy drink made of fermented cow's milk.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An effervescent drink prepared from the fermented milk of cows: used by the natives of the northern Caucasus region, and now extensively used elsewhere as a food for. invalids. It contains from 1 to 2 per cent. of free lactic acid and from 1 to 3 per cent. of alcohol. The original ferment used is a particular fungus called kefir grains (which see).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An effervescent liquor like kumiss, made from fermented milk, used as a food and as a medicine in the northern Caucasus.
  • noun A sour fermented milk drink, used in various regions of Asia, made by addition of Streptococcus or Lactobacillus cultures to cow's or goat's milk; it is considered by some as a form of yoghurt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A fermented milk drink from the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian, probably ultimately from Old Turkic köpür, (milk) froth, foam, from köpürmäk, to froth, foam.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From North-Caucasian languages via Russian кефир (kefír).

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Examples

Comments

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  • I love strawberry kefir.

    July 3, 2007

  • Not to be confused with kaffir.

    September 19, 2008