breadfruit
Americannoun
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breadfruits
plural
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a large, round, starchy fruit borne by a tree, Artocarpus altilis, of the mulberry family, native to the Pacific islands, used, baked or roasted, for food.
-
the tree bearing this fruit.
noun
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a moraceous tree, Artocarpus communis (or A. altilis ), of the Pacific Islands, having large round edible starchy usually seedless, fruit
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the fruit of this tree, which is eaten baked or roasted and has a texture like bread
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of breadfruit
Vocabulary lists containing breadfruit
Pacific Islands - Introductory
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Pacific Islands - Middle School and High School
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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:
During the Bounty’s infamous mutiny, Tahitian breadfruit saplings filled its hold.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
The air above Palau's pristine waters smells of salt and breadfruit, and on calm mornings in Koror, Palau's commercial centre, the whirr of dive boat engines echoes across the bay.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025
Nearshore fishing was good, but there were no breadfruit trees, no church, no school, and only one plywood structure to shield older islanders from the elements.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025
In 1778, British explorer Capt. James Cook was welcomed when he anchored off the Hawaiian islands by locals eager to trade cuttlefish, breadfruit and pigs for nails and iron tools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2023
They speak Austronesian languages closely related to those of the New Guinea region, and their main crops are the Austronesian package that included taro, yams, bananas, coconuts, and breadfruit.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
It is in the counting of breadfruit only,202 4 breadfruits = 1 pona = 4.
From The Number Concept Its Origin and Development by Levi Leonard Conant
To the west, a swift cold river ran down, and beyond was the green of the village, dotted with cocoa-palms and breadfruits and houses.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 17 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
I have walked in one, with equal admiration and surprise, through a forest of huge breadfruits, eating bananas and stumbling among taro as I went.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
The natives were now coming up by dozens at a time, bringing with them, in great arm-loads, fallen cocoanuts and breadfruits, and branches of bananas, and large draggled clusters of half-ripe plantains.
From The Great Taboo by Grant Allen
“If you don’t require my services,” said Brown, “I’ll go plant some breadfruits and other things at that sheltered spot we fell upon yesterday.”
From The Lonely Island The Refuge of the Mutineers by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
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.
