pumpkin
Americannoun
-
a large, edible, orange-yellow fruit borne by a coarse, decumbent vine, Cucurbita pepo, of the gourd family.
-
the similar fruit of any of several related species, as C. maxima or C. moschata.
-
a plant bearing such fruit.
noun
-
any of several creeping cucurbitaceous plants of the genus Cucurbita, esp C. pepo of North America and C. maxima of Europe
-
-
the large round fruit of any of these plants, which has a thick orange rind, pulpy flesh, and numerous seeds
-
( as modifier )
pumpkin pie
-
-
(often capital) a term of endearment
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pumpkin
1640–50; alteration of pumpion ( see -kin), variant of pompon < Middle French, nasalized variant of popon melon, earlier pepon < Latin pepōn- (stem of pepō ) < Greek pépōn kind of melon
Explanation
A pumpkin is a round, orange type of squash that grows on a plant also called a pumpkin. It’s the raw material for a jack-o’-lantern. Cook one up in a pie or name your precious poodle after it. Pumpkins are most commonly harvested in the fall, and they're often associated with Halloween, when people traditionally hollow them out and carve faces on them. Pumpkin is delicious in sweet and savory foods, and pumpkin pie is a popular Thanksgiving dessert in the US. The word was originally pompone, from the Greek root pepon, "melon," or literally, "cooked by the sun."
Vocabulary lists containing pumpkin
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:
He told us tales of big brinjals, bright pumpkin flowers, sprite okra that grew in the farmland in what’s now Bangladesh, where he grew up.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
A special “Chef’s Table” meal featured pumpkin and ginger soup, a duo of rock lobster and beef tenderloin, and a carrot panna cotta dessert, Moraes posted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
It was a Cinderella story that smelled like rotting pumpkin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
"And then to give it some crunch, we used pumpkin seeds in there as well."
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
Nhamo filled the cooking pots and watered the pumpkin mounds.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Daisy’s husband Matt, for one, feels torn about the spoopiness that retailers foreground with their shelves of pastel pumpkins and rainbow-hued ghosts, and not just because of the aesthetics.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
“But just like in the fairy tale,” Mahmood said, “We can now see that those carriages can turn into pumpkins at the drop of a hat.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
The rest of the home is already decked out for Thanksgiving with ceramic pumpkins and strings of orange and gold decorative foliage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2025
And I thought of all her favorite things, like she loves pumpkins and she likes summer.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2025
Soon this family was known throughout that part of the country for their good pumpkins.
From "The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa" by Alexander Mccall Smith
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.
