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• samara
  samara

  noun

  an indehiscent, usually one-seeded, winged fruit, as of the elm or maple.
• Samara
  Samara

  noun

  a port in the SE Russian Federation in Europe, on the Volga.

samara

¹ American  

[sam-er-uh, suh-mair-uh] / ˈsæm ər ə, səˈmɛər ə /

noun

Botany.

1. an indehiscent, usually one-seeded, winged fruit, as of the elm or maple.

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Samara ² American  

[suh-mahr-uh, suh-mah-ruh] / səˈmɑr ə, sʌˈmɑ rə /

noun

1. a port in the SE Russian Federation in Europe, on the Volga.

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Samara ¹ British  

/ saˈmarə /

noun

1. Former name (1935–91): Kuibyshev, Kuybyshev. a port in SW Russia, on the River Volga: centre of an important industrial complex; oil refining. Pop: 1 140 000 (2005 est)

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samara ² British  

/ ˈsæmərə, səˈmɑːrə /

noun

1. Also called: key fruit. a dry indehiscent one-seeded fruit with a winglike extension to aid dispersal: occurs in the ash, maple, etc

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samara Scientific  

/ săm′ər-ə /

1. An achene (a dry, one-seeded fruit) in which the pericarp is modified into a winglike structure adapted for airborne dispersal. The seeds of the ash, elm, and maple are contained in samaras.

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Etymology

Origin of samara

1570–80; < New Latin; Latin samara, samera elm seed

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Explanation

A samara is a tree fruit that has wings and usually just one seed. You may have seen samaras spinning through the air after falling from trees, which is why they are sometimes called helicopter seeds. People call samaras lots of different things, including keys, wingnuts, and whirlybirds. The name samara comes from the Latin for "elm seed," but some other trees that produce samaras are maple, ash, and sycamore trees. When a samara gets blown off a tree, it spins away through the air on its thin wings. This allows the seed to be dispersed far from its parent tree, where it has a better chance of growing into a new tree.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

samara Samara

Acorns and winged maple keys, whose scientific name is a samara, are also fruit.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 25, 2013

Fruit a 1–2-celled samara or key-fruit, flattened, winged at the apex, 1–2-seeded.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Acerineæ, in Sapindaceæ, 115 Fruit a 1-celled and 1-seeded samara or a drupe.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

Fruit a 2-celled and 2-seeded samara, winged all round, nearly orbicular.—Shrubs, with 3-foliolate leaves, and greenish-white small flowers in compound terminal cymes.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

The fruit, ripening in October but remaining on the tree during the winter, is a one-seeded samara, spirally twisted, borne in crowded clusters.

From Forest Trees of Illinois How to Know Them by Fuller George D.

The overnight strikes comes a day after Ozon's site in the Samara region was hit.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

The strike came a day after an Ozon centre in the neighbouring Samara region was hit.

From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026

“I’m genuinely glad to see organizations at the national level addressing this gap,” said Samara Tricarico, co-founder of the non-profit Endurant Movement, which works with neurodivergent youth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

The “U.S. CPI data for June came in well below expectations,” CBA’s Samara Hammoud says in a research report.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Samara, sā-mar′a, or sam′-, n. a dry indehiscent, usually one-sided fruit, with a wing, as in the ash, elm, and maple—the last a double samara.—adjs.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

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