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• samara
  samara

  noun

  an indehiscent, usually one-seeded, winged fruit, as of the elm or maple.
• Samara
  Samara

  noun

  a port in the SE Russian Federation in Europe, on the Volga.

samara

¹ American  

[sam-er-uh, suh-mair-uh] / ˈsæm ər ə, səˈmɛər ə /

noun

Botany.

1. an indehiscent, usually one-seeded, winged fruit, as of the elm or maple.

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Samara ² American  

[suh-mahr-uh, suh-mah-ruh] / səˈmɑr ə, sʌˈmɑ rə /

noun

1. a port in the SE Russian Federation in Europe, on the Volga.

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samara ¹ British  

/ ˈsæmərə, səˈmɑːrə /

noun

1. Also called: key fruit.  a dry indehiscent one-seeded fruit with a winglike extension to aid dispersal: occurs in the ash, maple, etc

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Samara ² British  

/ saˈmarə /

noun

1. Former name (1935–91): Kuibyshev.   Kuybyshev.  a port in SW Russia, on the River Volga: centre of an important industrial complex; oil refining. Pop: 1 140 000 (2005 est)

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samara Scientific  

/ săm′ər-ə /

1. An achene (a dry, one-seeded fruit) in which the pericarp is modified into a winglike structure adapted for airborne dispersal. The seeds of the ash, elm, and maple are contained in samaras.

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Etymology

Origin of samara

1570–80; < New Latin; Latin samara, samera elm seed

Explanation

A samara is a tree fruit that has wings and usually just one seed. You may have seen samaras spinning through the air after falling from trees, which is why they are sometimes called helicopter seeds. People call samaras lots of different things, including keys, wingnuts, and whirlybirds. The name samara comes from the Latin for "elm seed," but some other trees that produce samaras are maple, ash, and sycamore trees. When a samara gets blown off a tree, it spins away through the air on its thin wings. This allows the seed to be dispersed far from its parent tree, where it has a better chance of growing into a new tree.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

samara Samara

Acorns and winged maple keys, whose scientific name is a samara, are also fruit.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 25, 2013

The fruit, ripening in October but remaining on the tree during the winter, is a one-seeded samara, spirally twisted, borne in crowded clusters.

From Forest Trees of Illinois How to Know Them by Fuller George D.

Flowers polygamous; ovary 2-celled, forming a samara, like that of Elm.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Acerineæ, in Sapindaceæ, 115 Fruit a 1-celled and 1-seeded samara or a drupe.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

It also feeds on the samara of maple, as we reared the moth in June, 1881, from larvæ infesting these winged seeds that had been collected by Mr. A.J.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 363, December 16, 1882 by Various

The overnight strikes comes a day after Ozon's site in the Samara region was hit.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

The strike came a day after an Ozon centre in the neighbouring Samara region was hit.

From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026

The U.S. dollar found modest support during the Asian session, but uncertainty around the opening of the strait is keeping risk sentiment cautious, said Samara Hammoud, currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

The same year Chase voiced Lilo in “Lilo & Stitch,” she also played the iconic ghost girl Samara Morgan in the horror flick “The Ring.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

It is inaugurated by the magnificent iron bridge which spans the Volga at Samara in East Russia.

From Russia As Seen and Described by Famous Writers by Esther Singleton