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• clementine
  clementine

  noun

  a small, sweet variety of tangerine with orange-red skin.
• Clementine
  Clementine

  noun

  a female given name: derived from Clement.
• “Clementine”
  “Clementine”

  An American folksong (see folk music). Its refrain is:

  Oh my darling, oh my darling,

  Oh my darling Clementine!

  You are lost and gone forever,

  Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

  (See also forty-niners.)

clementine

¹ American  

[klem-uhn-tahyn, -teen] / ˈklɛm ənˌtaɪn, -ˌtin /

noun

1. a small, sweet variety of tangerine with orange-red skin.

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Clementine ² American  

[klem-uhn-tahyn, -teen, kle-mahn-teen] / ˈklɛm ənˌtaɪn, -ˌtin, klɛ mɑ̃ˈtin /

Also Clementina

noun

1. a female given name: derived from Clement.

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clementine British  

/ -ˌtaɪn, ˈklɛmənˌtiːn /

noun

1. a citrus fruit thought to be either a variety of tangerine or a hybrid between a tangerine and sweet orange

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“Clementine” Cultural  

1. An American folksong (see folk music). Its refrain is:

   Oh my darling, oh my darling,

   Oh my darling Clementine!

   You are lost and gone forever,

   Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

   (See also forty-niners.)

---

Etymology

Origin of clementine

< French clémentine (1902), said to be named after a Father Clément, who developed the fruit near Oran; see -ine ¹

Explanation

A clementine is a small, orange, seedless citrus fruit. Clementines are usually easy to peel and section, and they taste very sweet. Clementines are a deep orange-colored hybrid fruit, a combination of the mandarin and the sweet orange, similar in size to a tangerine. The history of the clementine includes what was probably an accidental invention, and an introduction to California in 1914. The inadvertent inventor of the clementine was Father Clément Rodier, who ran an Algerian orphanage, and for whom the fruit was named.

Example Sentences

And arm yourself with simple pantry staples that you can graze on lazily, ideally while peeling a clementine and thumbing a paperback.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 8, 2026

Orange is being mixed with mango, mandarins and clementine juice.

From BBC • Oct. 21, 2025

Like for nervous people, “fidget toys” — sensory objects to fondle — help ground you, Darragh says, gripping a clementine.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2023

This one has the zest of a clementine for a hint of fruitiness that says "there's more to me than meets the eye."

From Salon • Feb. 11, 2022

Lola had been complaining about his mother’s fruit buying for the past three days, so he knew his mom was trying to prove a point by putting every mango and clementine to good use.

From "Hello, Universe" by Erin Entrada Kelly