[1][2] As commercially available in Western markets, curry powder is comparable to the traditional Indian spice mixture known as "garam masala".

[6] Curry powder was used as an ingredient in 18th-century British recipe books,[7] and commercially available from the late 18th century,[8][9][10] with brands such as Crosse & Blackwell and Sharwood's persisting to the present.

[16][17] The sauce-like component characterized by "curry" has been derived from the Tamil word kaṟi meaning literally 'sauce' or 'relish for rice', and finds synonyms with other regional references to local dishes evolving over thousands of years in the Indian subcontinent, such as jhol, shorba and kalia.

In the United States, curry powder is expected to contain at least these ingredients: turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger, and cardamom.

[21] The Indian (FSSAI), Pakistani (PS:1741-1997), and international (ISO 2253:1999) standards do not define a baseline of essential ingredients.