clementine
noun
a small, sweet variety of tangerine with orange-red skin.
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clementine
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Clementine
Clementinenouna female given name: derived from Clement.
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“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
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clementines
plural
Clementine
2
American
[klem-uhn-tahyn, -teen, kle-mahn -teen]
/ ˈklɛm ənˌtaɪn, -ˌtin, klɛ mɑ̃ˈtin /
Also
Clementina
noun
clementine
British
/ -ˌtaɪn, ˈklɛmənˌtiːn /
noun
“Clementine”
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing clementine
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:
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
Give me citrus galore: preserved lemon, blood orange, clementine.
From Salon ● May 31, 2025
The traditional velvet cap features embroidered initials, button and tassel and a hand-embroidered clementine in honour of his wife Clementine.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2024
“Yeah, it’s not,” says Miranda, gazing up from the clementine she is peeling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2023
Virgil studied his own hands as they worked away at the peel on a clementine.
From "Hello, Universe" by Erin Entrada Kelly
It is the result of “just streamlining these workflows and knitting someone’s journey together end to end,” says Clementine Jacoby, chief executive officer of Recidiviz.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
The opening day will also see Australian producer FISHER, Birmingham-born singer Clementine Douglas and American DJ MK take to the main stage.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
"For the average consumer, it is impossible to understand that TotalEnergies is actually expanding fossil fuel production," Clementine Baldon, a lawyer for the NGOs, said at a hearing in June.
From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2025
And then there’s Clementine, who was “a little anxious” before the fire, and more so ever since.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2025
Because of her allergies, Clementine was kept indoors a lot.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Western folk ballad “Clementine” appeared in more than two dozen known 19th-century song collections, with an estimated cumulative circulation in the tens of thousands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026
With its breathy tonal atmosphere and wispy story, “Clementine” bobs along on the surface, with nowhere particularly interesting to go.
From Washington Post ● May 6, 2020
The books are a spinoff of Pennypacker’s seven “Clementine” books.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 2, 2016
When I finished the “Clementine” books, I was bereft.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 2, 2016
Luckily, the officials in the booth also had the rolls in Marathi, the local language, and there, her name was close enough to “Clementine” that they were willing to accept her photo ID.
From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2014
In South Korea, a country slightly larger than Indiana, rising temperatures are pushing the production of fruits such as apples and clementines northward as well as boosting the commercial cultivation of tropical fruits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2024
As expected, the presence of an image was more important in determining consumer choice than whether the handwash was scented with clementines or pears.
From Science Daily ● May 2, 2024
In a Paris market this week, Moroccan clementines and Polish mushrooms cost about half the price of their French counterparts.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
And in other parts of Italy, farmer associations have said that heat waves, floods and hailstones the size of clementines damaged local melon, watermelon, cherry and wine grape crops.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 31, 2023
He arranged the clementines in a perfect line in front of him, then checked his phone.
From "Hello, Universe" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
