pumpkin
Americannoun
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pumpkins
plural
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a large, edible, orange-yellow fruit borne by a coarse, decumbent vine, Cucurbita pepo, of the gourd family.
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the similar fruit of any of several related species, as C. maxima or C. moschata.
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a plant bearing such fruit.
noun
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any of several creeping cucurbitaceous plants of the genus Cucurbita, esp C. pepo of North America and C. maxima of Europe
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the large round fruit of any of these plants, which has a thick orange rind, pulpy flesh, and numerous seeds
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( as modifier )
pumpkin pie
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(often capital) a term of endearment
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pumpkin
1640–50; alteration of pumpion ( see -kin), variant of pompon < Middle French, nasalized variant of popon melon, earlier pepon < Latin pepōn- (stem of pepō ) < Greek pépōn kind of melon
Explanation
A pumpkin is a round, orange type of squash that grows on a plant also called a pumpkin. It’s the raw material for a jack-o’-lantern. Cook one up in a pie or name your precious poodle after it. Pumpkins are most commonly harvested in the fall, and they're often associated with Halloween, when people traditionally hollow them out and carve faces on them. Pumpkin is delicious in sweet and savory foods, and pumpkin pie is a popular Thanksgiving dessert in the US. The word was originally pompone, from the Greek root pepon, "melon," or literally, "cooked by the sun."
Vocabulary lists containing pumpkin
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:
Watch the export miracle turn into a pumpkin or improvise.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
He told us tales of big brinjals, bright pumpkin flowers, sprite okra that grew in the farmland in what’s now Bangladesh, where he grew up.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
The pumpkin rice and peas, seasoned with thyme, from Dominica was a good complement to the Trinidadian curry shrimp, whose pot was licked clean.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
It was a Cinderella story that smelled like rotting pumpkin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
Nhamo filled the cooking pots and watered the pumpkin mounds.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Daisy’s husband Matt, for one, feels torn about the spoopiness that retailers foreground with their shelves of pastel pumpkins and rainbow-hued ghosts, and not just because of the aesthetics.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
Monica Koskey stands on the debris of her home where pumpkins have begun growing on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025 in Altadena, CA.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
That’s on the higher end compared with others, but Gienger gets free supplies from sponsorships and has sold pumpkins afterward for thousands of dollars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2025
And I thought of all her favorite things, like she loves pumpkins and she likes summer.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2025
The water pots had been neglected, the pumpkins unwatered, the mealies unstamped.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
