pawpaw
Americannoun
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pawpaws
plural
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a tree, Asimina triloba, of the annona family, native to the eastern United States, having large, oblong leaves and purplish flowers.
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the fleshy, edible fruit of this tree.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pawpaw
First recorded in 1620–30; unexplained variant of papaye “papaya”; see papaya
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:
Finger limes, pomelos, pawpaw and sapote, to name a handful.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
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
Peterson tasted his first pawpaw, from a wild growing tree, in his university's arboretum as a graduate student studying plant genetics.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
This is the common pawpaw, a fruit whose native range extends from Ontario down into Florida and as far west as Kansas.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
She walks past the pawpaw tree, past the rows of gangly bird of paradise, past the house of her neighbor, Ilda Limon, and down a sandy path skirting the beach.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Fryar, who wrote a book about the Potomac after discovering its hidden wilds, plans to stop foraging for pawpaws and a leafy green called sochan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
This wouldn't be surprising since pawpaws are incredibly fragile.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
He tracked down historic collections of cultivated pawpaws based on library records and then selected seeds for his own orchard.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
At farmers markets pawpaws typically cost $2- 15 per pound, while online retailers often charge even more.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
I reckon peoples is starting to think old Aibileen’s basket ain’t got many pawpaws left in it.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
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.
