banana

American  

[buh-nan-uh] / bəˈnæn ə /

noun

• bananas
  plural

1. a tropical plant of the genus Musa, certain species of which are cultivated for their nutritious fruit.

2. the fruit, especially that of M. paradisiaca, with yellow or reddish rind.

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banana British  

/ bəˈnɑːnə /

noun

1. any of several tropical and subtropical herbaceous treelike plants of the musaceous genus Musa , esp M. sapientum , a widely cultivated species propagated from suckers and having hanging clusters of edible fruit

2. the crescent-shaped fruit of any of these plants Compare plantain 2

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banana Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing banana

• drive someone crazy (bananas)
• go bananas
• top banana

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bananas
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of banana

1590–1600; < Spanish < Portuguese (perhaps via Sp); akin to various words for banana or plantain in WAfr languages (e.g., Wolof, Malinke banana, Vai (Mande language of Liberia) bana ), but ultimate source and direction of borrowing uncertain

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Explanation

A banana is a curved, yellow fruit with a thick skin and soft sweet flesh. If you eat a banana every day for breakfast, your roommate might nickname you "the monkey." A banana is a tropical fruit that's quite popular all over the world. It grows in bunches on a banana tree. To "go bananas" is a slangy way of saying "go crazy" or act ridiculous, and if someone refers to the "top banana," they mean the most important person in a particular group. The origin of banana isn't certain, but it's thought that it was borrowed by the Spanish or Portuguese from an African word, probably the Wolof word banana.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

banana bananas

A neighbor’s flowers are blooming, and on Knight’s property, survivor trees include pomegranate, sapote, finger lime, orange and banana.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2026

The trick is that you can put some banana in it while you’re boiling it so that makes it a little sweeter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

Now, almost 40years later, as I watch people cut into my banana cake, I see it all— independence, grief, hope, joy.

From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026

For farmers, dry soils have disrupted the growth of fruit and cacao trees as well as banana and coffee plants, contributing to crop losses.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

And she certainly didn’t slip over to the banana grove to meet him.

From "Rickshaw Girl" by Mitali Perkins

First up, hosts Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and Elizabeth Spiers dig into what is causing inflation and why bananas should actually cost more than they do.

From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026

At the trial—held ahead of the first official games, which will take place in New York in November—competitors chatted excitedly while snacking on bananas and protein bars.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

"Before the ube craze, it was a niche market," he said, adding it had lagged behind high-value crops like bananas, mangoes and coffee.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

And then one day, when I had a bunch of almost-rotten bananas sitting on my kitchen counter, I threw them together and made a cake.

From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026

But she helped Nim clean the sand out with fresh coconut juice, and then Fred hinted that they ought to eat the coconut now they’d opened it, so they had it for lunch with bananas.

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr

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