Showing results for "acorn"

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Politics dictionary results for acorn.

acorn

American  

[ay-kawrn, ay-kern] / ˈeɪ kɔrn, ˈeɪ kərn /

noun

• acorns
  plural

1. the typically ovoid fruit or nut of an oak, enclosed at the base by a cupule.

2. a finial or knop, as on a piece of furniture, in the form of an acorn.

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acorn British  

/ ˈeɪkɔːn /

noun

1. the fruit of an oak tree, consisting of a smooth thick-walled nut in a woody scaly cuplike base

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• acorned
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• acorns
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of acorn

before 1000; Middle English acorne (influenced by corn ¹ ), replacing akern, Old English æcern, æcren mast, oak-mast; cognate with Old Norse akarn fruit of wild trees, Middle High German ackeran acorn, Gothic akran fruit, yield < Germanic *akrana-; alleged derivation from base of acre is dubious if original reference was to wild trees

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Explanation

The nut, or fruit, that grows on oak trees is called an acorn. Chicken Little thought the sky was falling when an acorn fell on his head. Don't make that same mistake. Acorns are a distinctive nut that's often found on forest floors where oak trees grow. They are smooth and greenish, set in a rough brown base that's shaped like a little cup. The acorn is a seed, able to sprout roots if it falls in the right place, eventually growing into a new oak tree. Many animals eat acorns, some stockpiling the nuts for weeks. In Old English, æcern means "nut," from a Germanic origin.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

acorn acorns

Looking across more than 550 million years of evolutionary history, the team found evidence of the same two-origin arrangement in chickens, zebrafish and even acorn worms.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026

An acorn doesn’t become an oak on an assembly line.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Fireballs are made when much larger pieces of debris, external - more like the size of a grape or an acorn - pass though the atmosphere.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026

According to scientists, the crisis is being driven by a fast-growing bear population, combined with a falling human population and poor acorn harvest pushing bears to seek food elsewhere.

From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025

Acorns were falling from the oaks, and Laura and Mary made little acorn cups and saucers for the playhouses.

From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Re-Oak California needs donated acorns, volunteer planters and propagators, and money — especially if Crouch is to reach his dream goal of planting 20,000 trees a year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

One thing LLMs are great at is rapidly finding little acorns within huge blocks of text.

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

Bears are thriving thanks in part to an abundance of food -- including acorns, deer and boars -- under the influence of a warming climate, experts say.

From Barron's ● May 8, 2026

It introduces us to Chinese villagers 10,000 years ago who subsisted on a mélange of acorns, berries, deer and pigs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

And my absence would mean more sunlight in their living rooms and fewer acorns underfoot.

From "Wishtree" by Katherine Applegate

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