peanut

American  

[pee-nuht, -nuht] / ˈpiˌnʌt, -nət /

noun

• peanuts
  plural

1. the pod or the enclosed edible seed of the plant, Arachis hypogaea, of the legume family: the pod is forced underground in growing, where it ripens.

2. the plant itself.

3. any small or insignificant person or thing.

4. peanuts,

   1. Informal. a very small amount of money.

      working for peanuts.

   2. Slang. barbiturates.

   3. small pieces of Styrofoam used as a packing material.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the peanut or peanuts.

2. made with or from peanuts.

3. Informal. small, insignificant, or petty.

peanut British  

/ ˈpiːˌnʌt /

noun

1. See also peanuts

   1. a leguminous plant, Arachis hypogaea, of tropical America: widely cultivated for its edible seeds. The seed pods are forced underground where they ripen See also hog peanut

   2. Also called: goober, goober pea, groundnut, monkey nut. the edible nutlike seed of this plant, used for food and as a source of oil

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• peanutty
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• peanuts
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of peanut

An Americanism dating back to 1790–1800; pea ¹ + nut

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Explanation

A peanut is a plant that grows pods containing seeds that are also known as peanuts. You may think of peanuts as nuts, but they're actually legumes. Despite the deceptive name peanut, this plant is more closely related to peas than it is to almonds and hazelnuts. Peanuts are an important food crop around the world, in the form of oil, flour, peanut butter, and roasted, whole peanuts. Peanuts were originally called "ground nuts," and despite their popularity, they're also known for being inexpensive — thus peanuts also informally means "a very small amount of money."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

peanut peanuts

Unlike Reese’s Minis, which often lean on that timeless, but gritty filling and waxy milk chocolate, these have a rich dark chocolate shell wrapped around a smooth, slow-roasted peanut butter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

On week one of the competition, Mahir landed star baker after he stunned TV judges Nigella Lawson and Paul Hollywood with his peanut and caramel chocolate stout cake.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

“Most of it comes out of the ground with the consistency of cold peanut butter,” observes economist David I. Levine of UC Berkeley.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

It will not noticeably change the reading on a bathroom scale, and it would not affect how much peanut butter is required to produce a 16-ounce container.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

Nathan sat at the kitchen table with a peanut butter jam sandwich and two bottles of water before him.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

I covered myself in bits of cardboard, packing tape and foam peanuts and overdid my makeup with several coats of mascara and thick black eyeliner.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

Caicedo eked out a living by selling peanuts and other products on the street, earning just enough to pay for a room that cost around $4.50 a day.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Some less-processed foods contain more fat and calories because they include nutrient-dense whole-food ingredients such as peanuts or beef.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

Put this all together and farmers — mainly large-scale row-crop producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice and peanuts — are already set to receive roughly $55 billion from the U.S.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

Everything that I’ve traded for thus far will be peanuts compared to what my next transactions will bring.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

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Related Words

• groundnut

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