Dictionary.com

accessory fruit

Save This Word!

noun Botany.
a fruit, as the apple, strawberry, or pineapple, that contains, in addition to a mature ovary and seeds, a significant amount of other tissue.
QUIZ
CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?
There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?
Question 1 of 7
Which sentence is correct?
Also called false fruit, pseudocarp.

Origin of accessory fruit

First recorded in 1895–1900
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

British Dictionary definitions for accessory fruit

accessory fruit

noun
another name for pseudocarp
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for accessory fruit

accessory fruit

A fruit, such as the pear or strawberry, that develops from a ripened ovary or ovaries but also has tissue derived from part of the plant outside the ovary. In pears and other pomes, the edible flesh is a swollen part of the stem, and the fruit is the seed-bearing core. In the strawberry, the receptacle is fleshy, and the fruits are achenes embedded in its surface. Also called false fruit pseudocarp Compare aggregate fruit multiple fruit simple fruit.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
FEEDBACK