tangerine
Americannoun
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Also called mandarin, mandarin orange. any of several varieties of mandarin, cultivated widely, especially in the U.S.
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deep orange; reddish orange.
adjective
noun
adjective
noun
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an Asian citrus tree, Citrus reticulata, cultivated for its small edible orange-like fruits
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the fruit of this tree, having a loose rind and sweet spicy flesh
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a reddish-orange colour
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( as adjective )
a tangerine door
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tangerine
Compare meaning
How does tangerine compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A tangerine is a kind of citrus tree, and it's also the name of the fruit the tree produces. Tangerines are like little oranges. Delicious! Some people prefer tangerines to oranges, because they're small, they have thin, loose skin that's easy to peel, and they are often sweeter than oranges. In the 1840s, tangerines were called tangerine oranges, or "oranges from Tangier" by the British. They were originally imported from Tangier, Morocco, and are a variety of mandarin orange.
Vocabulary lists containing tangerine
English Food and Drink Words Derived from Arabic
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Orange
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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:
"It totally blindsided me - I had a tumour the size of a tangerine which had a cyst attached to it," Kirsty said.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
New York had not even hosted an NBA finals game since Steve Jobs was hawking tangerine iMacs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
Or a whole tangerine and an entire avocado toast, as opposed to a sliver?
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
A recently installed waterfall runs over stones, creating a soundtrack to a tranquil courtyard that’s bursting with spring blooms in tangerine and magenta and mustard.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025
Ampai reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a tangerine.
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
To be clear: These athletes aren’t chowing on the yucky old sports gels we all know and hate, the ones that taste like tangerines and moldy baseball gloves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
But others, like the Hidatsa Red bean, prevalent in the Dakotas, and the Ojai Pixie tangerines grown in Southern California, are newer additions to the ever-growing catalog.
From Salon ● May 8, 2024
“Today I ate chips, tangerines and this thing that looked like chili but without the meat - just beans,” the 12-year-old said after lunch on a Friday at I.S.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 16, 2023
Most of the water pumped from wells in the Central Valley supplies farms that produce a wide variety of crops, from almonds to tangerines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2023
Tonight I was down in the alcove searching for information on tangerines when Mom announced, “I’ve got people coming over tonight, Paul. You might want to work upstairs.”
From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor
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.
