melon
Americannoun
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melons
plural
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the fruit of any of various plants of the gourd family, as the muskmelon or watermelon.
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medium crimson or deep pink.
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the visible upper portion of the head of a surfacing whale or dolphin, including the beak, eyes, and blowhole.
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Informal.
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a large extra dividend, often in the form of stock, to be distributed to stockholders.
Profits zoomed so in the last quarter that the corporation cut a nice melon.
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any windfall of money to be divided among specified participants.
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noun
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any of several varieties of two cucurbitaceous vines, cultivated for their edible fruit See muskmelon watermelon
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the fruit of any of these plants, which has a hard rind and juicy flesh
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slang to declare an abnormally high dividend to shareholders
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of melon
1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin mēlōn- (stem of mēlō ), short for mēlopepō < Greek mēlopépōn apple-shaped melon, equivalent to mêlo ( n ) apple + pépōn pepo
Explanation
A melon is a round, sweet fruit with a hard outer skin. Add some color to your fruit salad by including different types of melon, like honeydew and cantaloupe. Melons are actually a type of berry, although you wouldn't know that to look at a watermelon, which can weigh 20 pounds or more. Melons grow on vines, like squash and gourds, and their rinds are so thick they need to be cut open with a sharp knife. When a melon is ripe, its flesh is soft, sweet, and juicy. The Greek root is mēlopepon, "gourd-apple."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
At the Farmers Market, breakfast is maybe three oranges, two apples, a basket of strawberries, half a melon and two peaches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
I wanted to resemble the relaxed browsers who paused over a melon because its scent had summoned them.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Some batches are heavy on berries, some heavy on melon, but no two are the same.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
“Fish market gone bad, brine and blood. The melon sweetness of curdling bacteria. Urine, too, hot, tacky.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
A ruptured melon lolls in the drive like an amputated head.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Tokyo on Wednesday played down comments by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about melons gifted to him by his Japanese counterpart that have triggered a row Down Under, stressing the leaders' good relationship.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
During an appearance on the Bush Deep podcast, Albanese gestured near his chest while referring to the crown melons, calling them "pretty strange" gifts that "ended up being quite good".
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
With dinner already half-imagined, I could pass the tomatoes and melons without treating each one as an alternate future I might regret abandoning.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Whole fruits included apples, oranges, bananas, mangos, grapes, pears, melons, strawberries and peaches.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
Sometimes coyotes would come and eat watermelons, too; and now and then a deer would jump into the field and eat corn, melons, and peas.
From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
