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fruit

[ froot ]

/ frut /

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See synonyms for: fruit / fruited / fruiting / fruits on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural fruits, (especially collectively) fruit.

any product of plant growth useful to humans or animals.

the developed ovary of a seed plant with its contents and accessory parts, as the pea pod, nut, tomato, or pineapple.

the edible part of a plant developed from a flower, with any accessory tissues, as the peach, mulberry, or banana.

the spores and accessory organs of ferns, mosses, fungi, algae, or lichen.

anything produced or accruing; product, result, or effect; return or profit: the fruits of one's labors.

Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a gay man.

verb (used with or without object)

to bear or cause to bear fruit: a tree that fruits in late summer; careful pruning that sometimes fruits a tree.

VIDEO FOR FRUIT

Are These Foods Fruits, Vegetables, Or Berries?

How can we know what is a fruit? A vegetable? A berry? A nut? Doesn't it seem like it's always changing? Why is it so confusing?

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WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?

Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!

Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

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Origin of fruit

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin frūctus “enjoyment, profit, fruit,” equivalent to frūg-, variant stem of fruī “to enjoy the produce of” + -tus suffix of verbal action

OTHER WORDS FROM fruit

fruit·like, adjective

Words nearby fruit

frugal, frugality, frugally, frugivore, frugivorous, fruit, fruitage, fruitarian, fruit bat, fruit beer, fruit body

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use fruit in a sentence

Sugars and starches are found in fruits, bread, potatoes and vegetables.
Scientists Say: Carbohydrate|Bethany Brookshire|August 24, 2020|Science News For Students
Probably the lowest hanging fruit in the search world is simply paying attention to what it is that search engines are looking for and focussing on delivering there.
SEO in the second half of 2020: Five search opportunities to act on now|Jim Yu|August 17, 2020|Search Engine Watch
More than half of the fruits, vegetables and nuts sold in the United States are grown here, often using pesticides.
Pesticides contaminate most food of western U.S. monarchs|Rebecca E. Hirsch|August 17, 2020|Science News For Students
Berni bred new fruit flies and built much bigger agar arenas to run much longer tracking experiments.
Random Search Wired Into Animals May Help Them Hunt|Liam Drew|June 11, 2020|Quanta Magazine

In the end, build a huge and healthy link profile around your low-hanging fruits.
SEO on a shoestring budget: What small business owners can do to win|Ali Faagba|June 4, 2020|Search Engine Watch
The tasteless bread was transformed into a sweet cake that included ingredients, such as dried fruit and marzipan.
One Cake to Rule Them All: How Stollen Stole Our Hearts|Molly Hannon|December 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Spanish oak, which has an open grain and high levels of tannin, gives you dried fruit, spice, and even chocolate flavors.
How Much Do Whisky Casks Really Affect Taste?||December 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
You may just enjoy the rich, smooth fruit of their labor that little bit more.
When It Comes to Great Whisky, The Size of Your Still Matters||December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down.
Keep Christmas Commercialized!|P. J. O’Rourke|December 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It's a bright, drinkable IPA made with dry American hops giving the nose hints of mango and passion fruit.
House of the Witch: The Renegade Craft Brewers of Panama|Jeff Campagna|November 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Fruit-trees are clearly too scarce, though Cherries in abundance were offered for sale as we passed.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
In the community her father was the wealthiest man, having made his fortune in the growing of potatoes and fruit.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
The natives of Guiana use a tube or pipe not unlike a cheroot, made from the rind of the fruit of a species of palm.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce|E. R. Billings.
Every detail of this canvas is perfect, because every detail is true, drawn straight from life, the fruit of minute observation.
Bastien Lepage|Fr. Crastre
A part of the square is walled off and employed as a market for fish, fruit, vegetables, and poultry.
A Woman's Journey Round the World|Ida Pfeiffer

British Dictionary definitions for fruit

fruit

/ (fruːt) /

noun

botany the ripened ovary of a flowering plant, containing one or more seeds. It may be dry, as in the poppy, or fleshy, as in the peach

any fleshy part of a plant, other than the above structure, that supports the seeds and is edible, such as the strawberry

the specialized spore-producing structure of plants that do not bear seeds

any plant product useful to man, including grain, vegetables, etc

(often plural) the result or consequence of an action or effort

British old-fashioned, slang chap; fellow: used as a term of address

slang, mainly British a person considered to be eccentric or insane

slang, mainly US and Canadian a male homosexual

archaic offspring of man or animals; progeny

verb

to bear or cause to bear fruit

Derived forms of fruit

fruitlike, adjective

Word Origin for fruit

C12: from Old French, from Latin frūctus enjoyment, profit, fruit, from frūī to enjoy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for fruit

fruit

[ frōōt ]

The ripened ovary of a flowering plant that contains the seeds, sometimes fused with other parts of the plant. Fruits can be dry or fleshy. Berries, nuts, grains, pods, and drupes are fruits.♦ Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries alone, such as the tomato and pea pod, are called true fruits. ♦ Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries and other parts such as the receptacle or bracts, as in the apple, are called accessory fruits or false fruits. See also aggregate fruit multiple fruit simple fruit. See Note at berry.

Usage

To most of us, a fruit is a plant part that is eaten as a dessert or snack because it is sweet, but to a botanist a fruit is a mature ovary of a plant, and as such it may or may not taste sweet. All species of flowering plants produce fruits that contain seeds. A peach, for example, contains a pit that can grow into a new peach tree, while the seeds known as peas can grow into another pea vine. To a botanist, apples, peaches, peppers, tomatoes, pea pods, cucumbers, and winged maple seeds are all fruits. A vegetable is simply part of a plant that is grown primarily for food. Thus, the leaf of spinach, the root of a carrot, the flower of broccoli, and the stalk of celery are all vegetables. In everyday, nonscientific speech we make the distinction between sweet plant parts (fruits) and nonsweet plant parts (vegetables). This is why we speak of peppers and cucumbers and squash-all fruits in the eyes of a botanist-as vegetables.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Cultural definitions for fruit

fruit

In botany, the part of a seed-bearing plant that contains the fertilized seeds capable of generating a new plant (see fertilization). Fruit develops from the female part of the plant. Apples, peaches, tomatoes, and many other familiar foods are fruits.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with fruit

fruit

see bear fruit; forbidden fruit.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.