cherimoya
Americannoun
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a tropical American tree, Annona cherimola, having leaves with velvety, hairy undersides and yellow-to-brown fragrant flowers.
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the large, edible fruit of this tree, having leathery, scalelike skin and soft pulp.
Etymology
Origin of cherimoya
First recorded in 1730–40; from Latin American Spanish chirimoya, name of the fruit; of uncertain origin; alleged analysis as Quechua chiri “cold” + muyu “wheel, circle” is probably spurious
Vocabulary lists containing cherimoya
South America - Middle School
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South America - 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.
He went from standard citrus, apricot and avocado to a more exotic collection, adding finger limes, valentine pummelos, jaboticaba, cherimoya and pawpaw.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
Native to the Andes Mountain range, the cherimoya is a green, scaly fruit with flavor notes similar to banana, pineapple, mango, peach and strawberry.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2022
But there are also illustrations of fruits I’ve never heard of: chayote, sweetsop, cherimoya, sapodilla, passiflora and mammee apple.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2021
New Yorkers welcomed speckled Asian pears; papaya with its lode of dripping black seeds; rough-skinned litchi disclosing creamy white flesh; knobby cherimoya with guts of custard; star fruit with its sharp angles and plasticized shine.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2018
Pineapples touch perfection on Java soil; cherimoya and mango, papaya and the various custard-fruits, the lovely but tasteless rose-apple, and the dark green equatorial orange of delicious flavour, afford a host of unfamiliar experiences.
From Through the Malay Archipelago by Emily Richings
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.
