grapefruit
Americannoun
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a large, roundish, yellow-skinned, edible citrus fruit having a juicy, acid pulp.
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the tropical or semitropical tree, Citrus paradisi, yielding this fruit.
noun
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a tropical or subtropical cultivated evergreen rutaceous tree, Citrus paradisi
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the large round edible fruit of this tree, which has yellow rind and juicy slightly bitter pulp
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grapefruit
1805–15; grape + fruit, apparently from the resemblance of its clusters to those of grapes
Explanation
A grapefruit is a large citrus fruit that grows on a tree. Ripe grapefruits are very slightly sour, juicy, and delicious. The first grapefruits were an accident — they came from an inadvertent cross between an orange and a pomelo. Both of those species are native to Asia, but the grapefruit's accidental invention happened in Barbados some time in the 18th century. The name comes from the way the fruit clusters on the tree, close together like grapes, rather than its taste, which is a mixture of sweetness and acidity.
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:
The liqueur has a touch of sweetness that counters the tart grapefruit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Lemon sparkling water forms the backbone, amplified with an extra squeeze of whatever citrus is hanging around the kitchen—lemon, lime, orange, even grapefruit.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2026
Bottle bio: A medium-bodied wine from Montevideo, Uruguay, with aromas of citrus blossom, grapefruit, white flowers and tropical fruits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Dan from Edinburgh says that his baby, due in early January, was at one point the size of a grapefruit.
From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2025
Quick as a flash, while his mother was occupied with the kettle, Dudley stole the rest of Uncle Vernon’s grapefruit.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Ayelet Kohn and Shachar Shnurman harvested the grapefruits this month - a defiant act of normality amid the burnt-out remains of their neighbours' homes.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2024
The park includes a museum on the citrus business, and you can take a self-guided tour through groves of navel and Valencia oranges, grapefruits and lemons.
From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
And because he couldn’t afford a soccer ball, he learned to play on the streets using grapefruits or cloth stuffed with newspapers and bound with string.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2022
This would be the equivalent of five fresh grapefruits, “but it is best to limit grapefruit as much as possible to avoid this interaction,” she says.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2021
He wished for a whole basket of yellow pomelo fruits, sweeter than grapefruits, to eat by himself.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
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.
