melon
Americannoun
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melons
plural
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the fruit of any of various plants of the gourd family, as the muskmelon or watermelon.
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medium crimson or deep pink.
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the visible upper portion of the head of a surfacing whale or dolphin, including the beak, eyes, and blowhole.
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Informal.
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a large extra dividend, often in the form of stock, to be distributed to stockholders.
Profits zoomed so in the last quarter that the corporation cut a nice melon.
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any windfall of money to be divided among specified participants.
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noun
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any of several varieties of two cucurbitaceous vines, cultivated for their edible fruit See muskmelon watermelon
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the fruit of any of these plants, which has a hard rind and juicy flesh
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slang to declare an abnormally high dividend to shareholders
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of melon
1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin mēlōn- (stem of mēlō ), short for mēlopepō < Greek mēlopépōn apple-shaped melon, equivalent to mêlo ( n ) apple + pépōn pepo
Explanation
A melon is a round, sweet fruit with a hard outer skin. Add some color to your fruit salad by including different types of melon, like honeydew and cantaloupe. Melons are actually a type of berry, although you wouldn't know that to look at a watermelon, which can weigh 20 pounds or more. Melons grow on vines, like squash and gourds, and their rinds are so thick they need to be cut open with a sharp knife. When a melon is ripe, its flesh is soft, sweet, and juicy. The Greek root is mēlopepon, "gourd-apple."
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:
At the Farmers Market, breakfast is maybe three oranges, two apples, a basket of strawberries, half a melon and two peaches.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Some batches are heavy on berries, some heavy on melon, but no two are the same.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
“Fish market gone bad, brine and blood. The melon sweetness of curdling bacteria. Urine, too, hot, tacky.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Dietitian Kate Hilton says she's drinking more iced water and eating cool, hydrating foods like cucumber, tomatoes, melon and frozen smoothies.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
His wife helped by drawing the basic melon shape over and over in charcoal on pieces of wood.
From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park
But separate comments in the interview about the "strange" present of Japanese melons by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in May -- when asked about his "most crap" diplomatic gift -- this week sparked further uproar.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is under fire for comments he made about two melons gifted to him by his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi, after a former Japanese envoy called it an insult.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
With dinner already half-imagined, I could pass the tomatoes and melons without treating each one as an alternate future I might regret abandoning.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Whole fruits included apples, oranges, bananas, mangos, grapes, pears, melons, strawberries and peaches.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
“Not like these,” he said, indicating a fruit vendor’s display of withered melons.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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.
