berry
noun
any small, usually stoneless, juicy fruit, irrespective of botanical structure, as the huckleberry, strawberry, or hackberry.
berry
1 American
[ber-ee]
/ ˈbɛr i /
noun
-
berries
plural
-
any small, usually stoneless, juicy fruit, irrespective of botanical structure, as the huckleberry, strawberry, or hackberry.
-
Botany. a simple fruit having a pulpy pericarp in which the seeds are embedded, as the grape, gooseberry, currant, or tomato.
-
a dry seed or kernel, as of wheat.
-
the hip of the rose.
-
one of the eggs of a lobster, crayfish, etc.
-
Older Slang. the berries, someone or something very attractive or unusual.
verb (used without object)
-
berries,
present (3rd person singular)
-
berried,
past participle, past
-
berrying
present participle
-
to gather or pick berries.
We went berrying this morning.
-
to bear or produce berries.
Berry
2
American
[ber-ee, be-ree]
/ ˈbɛr i, bɛˈri /
noun
-
Charles Edward Anderson Chuck, 1926–2017, U.S. rock-'n'-roll singer, musician, and composer.
-
Also Berri. a former province in central France.
berry
1
British
/ ˈbɛrɪ /
noun
-
any of various small edible fruits such as the blackberry and strawberry
-
botany an indehiscent fruit with two or more seeds and a fleshy pericarp, such as the grape or gooseberry
-
any of various seeds or dried kernels, such as a coffee bean
-
the egg of a lobster, crayfish, or similar animal
verb
-
to bear or produce berries
-
to gather or look for berries
Berry
2
British
noun
-
Chuck , full name Charles Edward Berry . born 1926, US rock-and-roll guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His frequently covered songs include "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), "Memphis, Tennessee" (1959), and "Promised Land" (1964)
-
Jean de France (ʒɑ̃ də frɑ̃s), Duc de. 1340–1416, French prince, son of King John II; coregent (1380–88) for Charles VI and a famous patron of the arts
berry
Scientific
/ bĕr′ē /
-
A simple fruit that has many seeds in a fleshy pulp. Grapes, bananas, tomatoes, and blueberries are berries.
-
Compare drupe pome See more at simple fruit
-
A seed or dried kernel of certain kinds of grain or other plants such as wheat, barley, or coffee.
Usage
What does berry mean? A berry is a small, stoneless, juicy fruit. Commonly, a berry is any small fruit that has no pit and usually produces juice. Berries range from sweet, such as the blueberry, to sour, such as the raspberry. In botany, a berry is specifically a fruit with a pulpy outer wall and many seeds. Botanically, then, some fruits commonly thought of as berries are not actually berries, including strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Fruits that botanically are berries include blueberries, bananas, grapes, and tomatoes. Less commonly, berry can also refer to a dry seed or kernel. As a verb, to berry means to pick berries or to produce berries. Example: We picked berries today, filling up three whole baskets.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
berrysimple
-
berriessimple
-
have berriedperfect
-
has berriedperfect
-
am berryingprogressive
-
are berryingprogressive
-
is berryingprogressive
-
have been berryingperfect progressive
-
has been berryingperfect progressive
Past
-
berriedsimple
-
had berriedperfect
-
was berryingprogressive
-
were berryingprogressive
-
had been berryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of berry
before 1000; Middle English berie, Old English beri ( g ) e; cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German beri ( German Beere ), Old Norse ber < Germanic basjá-; akin to Dutch besie, Gothic -basi < Germanic básja-
Vocabulary lists containing berry
Spelling Practice, Unit 8
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Spelling Practice, Unit 3
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
Many people are reconsidering their Caesar salad lunches and berry breakfasts as cases of cyclosporiasis, the explosive-diarrhea illness, continue to rise in the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Those include rival Rogue’s mango-flavored pouches and Velo’s wild berry and dragon fruit flavors.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Participants drank a banana based smoothie, a mixed berry smoothie, and a flavanol capsule used as a control.
From Science Daily ● May 24, 2026
One woman who worked at a berry farm before the steel mill opened told him “as soon as that plant fired up … everything died.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
And if he was Tag’s father, was he married to Donkey berry?
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Tylan Berry, Natural England's species and nature recovery networks senior officer, said the Species Recovery Programme was helping "take practical action to halt species decline and support nature recovery across England".
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
Corless said the film's director, Frank Berry, "really wanted" the film "to be true and they stuck to the truth".
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
Wayne’s last sentence refers to John Buccigross, Steve Levy and Linda Cohn, who along with Berry were the core of ESPN’s hockey coverage for decades, even when the network didn’t actually broadcast NHL games.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
Wendell Erdman Berry was born on Aug. 5, 1934, in Louisville, Ky., to John Marshall Berry Sr., a lawyer and tobacco farmer, and Virginia Perry Berry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
All she said was, “Jay Berry, you hurry back because I don’t want you out late.”
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
It matters because prices for fruit, especially high-value berries such as strawberries or blueberries can fluctuate wildly.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Researchers at King's College London found that urolithin A, which is produced in the body after eating foods including pomegranates, walnuts and some berries, can help the heart relax more effectively.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
He poured money into the operation, enabling it to whisk berries onto store shelves via refrigerated trucks within two days of picking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Most traditional foodstuffs, such as nuts or zereshk -- small red berries used in Persian cuisine -- remain available, however.
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
On termite mounds Nhamo discovered jabvane bushes with purplish black fruit, and in dense thickets near the water grew brambles with dark, sweet berries.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
The floral arrangements used “English foliage — holly, berried ivy and red skimmia,” and the tree was to be recycled to be viewed by holiday visitors to Windsor.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 25, 2022
In fall, masses of winter pansies, ornamental kale and berried shrubs replace tender plantings in the massive window box and containers, while the trim boxwood hedges and clipped hollies carry the show throughout winter.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 27, 2021
She made an almost imperceptible movement, and straightway the little creature was in a projecting spray of berried hawthorn overhead.
From Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
She began to take a pride in making the cabin as comfortable as circumstances would allow, even going to the trouble of seeking berried evergreens in the woods and transforming these into table decoration.
From Colorado Jim by George Goodchild
They would not give me the price of the habit that was berried with their father.
From The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent by Sir Home Gordon, Bart.
They spoke most of the weather, and mentioned fishing, berrying and hunting as often as art.
From Time Magazine Archive
I’m beginning to think she’s gone fishing or berrying and will not return until dusk.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Of course, I’m not going to follow her, although it would be easier than playing On the Track, the game we made up when went berrying or food gathering.
From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Joe and Marly did so much berrying, what with strawberries and then red raspberries and then blackberries, that Joe said he was absolutely berried-out.
From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen
Then, too, these children of the north go berrying and bring home many a dish of delicious black crow-berries.
From Little Folks of North America Stories about children living in the different parts of North America by Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade
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.
