papaya
Americannoun
-
papayas
plural
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the large, yellow, melonlike fruit of a tropical American shrub or small tree, Carica papaya, eaten raw or cooked.
-
the tree itself.
noun
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a Caribbean evergreen tree, Carica papaya, with a crown of large dissected leaves and large green hanging fruit: family Caricaceae
-
the fruit of this tree, having a yellow or reddish orange sweet edible pulp and small black seeds
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of papaya
1760–70; < Spanish < Carib (Hispaniola)
Explanation
A papaya is a sweet tropical fruit with small, black seeds at the center. A papaya and banana smoothie makes a delicious and healthy breakfast. Most people eat papayas raw when the fruit is soft and ripe, although some find the smell of a perfectly ripe papaya to be terrible. Many Southeast Asian and South American cuisines include raw and cooked papaya, as well as green papaya and even the leaves of the papaya tree. Papayas are also called pawpaws, which gets a bit confusing since there's a totally different North American fruit also called a pawpaw.
Vocabulary lists containing papaya
Orange
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South America - Middle School
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South America - Introductory
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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:
Espinal drew attention to a separate account where an AI papaya character named "Anaya Papaya" - already apparently spun off from the new Fruit Love Island series - is seemingly modelled after her.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026
I always order chicken sate and the green papaya salad.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
U.S. and Cook Islands government news releases showed him in a suit picking at pieces of pineapple and papaya as he sat opposite a group of diplomats in Hawaiian-style shirts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 27, 2025
Carrots and papaya plants have already pushed up through a rectangle of dark soil, thanks to a technique based on organic fertilisers made from a mixture of compost and chicken manure.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
But in the shade of the papaya trees the soil was dark brown, with the moist, friable feel that gardeners seek.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
In the back are fruits and veggies that no longer look perfect: mushy papayas, wilting spinach and bruised tomatoes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2024
During Vodou ceremonies, lwa are offered treats ranging from papayas and coffee to popcorn, lollipops and cheese puffs.
From Seattle Times ● May 9, 2024
If small-scale farmers grow fruit trees amid their crops, for example, they can eat those bananas or papayas themselves while selling the rest of the harvest.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 4, 2024
Some mornings, his grandfather would take Roy back across the dirt road into the jungle to pick papayas, lemons and coconuts.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023
“It’s not that, it’s just..She looked down at several slices of fruit. “There are papayas in this.”
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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.
