palmetto
Americannoun
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palmettos,
plural
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palmettoes
plural
noun
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any of several small chiefly tropical fan palms, esp any of the genus Sabal, of the southeastern US See also cabbage palmetto saw palmetto
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any of various other fan palms such as palms of the genera Serenoa, Thrinax, and Chamaerops
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of palmetto
1555–65; earlier palmito < Spanish, diminutive of palma palm 2; -etto by association with -ette
Explanation
A palmetto is a type of palm tree. You're most likely to see palmettos in South America or the southern US states, instead of say Nebraska. A palmetto (the "cabbage palmetto, to be specific) is Florida's official state tree, and South Carolina is known as "the palmetto state." Palmettos are fan palms, with leaves in the shape of fans that are arranged in a rounded shape. The very middle of the palmetto plant is edible, and when it's harvested and sold as food, it's called "heart of palm." Palmetto comes from the Spanish palmito, "little palm tree."
Vocabulary lists containing palmetto
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:
South Carolina’s palm, the Sabal palmetto, arrived in L.A. late in the 19th century, and a striking example grew at Fourth and Main in present-day downtown.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
There’s not strong evidence for herbal remedies such as saw palmetto.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
Herbal supplements such as saw palmetto are not currently recommended, although some men say they work for them.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2024
Nashville’s local palms, the dwarf palmetto and Sabal minor, might, at best, yield a fluffy lowercase m.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2023
She mouthed a few words I couldn’t hear, then threw a rose made of woven palmetto leaves into the water.
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
At the word, to the horror of Beth who did not understand, the men set fire to the low palmettoes a short distance away where there was an open space.
From A Little Florida Lady by Dorothy C. (Dorothy Charlotte) Paine
The stream wound on, the banks grew higher, palmettoes began to appear; they all leaned forward a little in the golden air, they formed the most graceful groups of curiosity.
From East Angels by Constance Fenimore Woolson
Over fallen trees, through dense cane-brakes, through clumps of palmettoes and pawpaw thickets, I passed, dashing the branches from my path, and lacerating my skin at every step.
From The Quadroon Adventures in the Far West by Mayne Reid
Then he had a glimpse of a dun colored object flitting through the scrub palmettoes under the pines.
From Chums in Dixie or The Strange Cruise of a Motorboat by St. George Rathborne
Out of the region of magnolias, palmettoes and live-oaks you pass into the region of pines, and out of the region of pines into that of maples and elms.
From American Adventures A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' by Wallace Morgan
“Our ownly food was palmettos boiled with the meat and without salt, and the cores of palm trees” — hearts of palm, a future foodie TikTok rage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
On a humid afternoon in June 1954, my parents married in a whitewashed Methodist church in my mother’s hometown in rural south Georgia, rosette windows and palmettos framing the front doors.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2021
Her work included a study of palmettos near her home at 71 Rutledge Ave. and possibly field research on the Isle of Palms.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 6, 2021
Others said it looked like one of the palmettos battered by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2021
Stands of palmettos and live oaks met the car as the road ribboned out straight in its last sprint to the barrier islands.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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