fruit

[ froot ]
/ frut /

noun, plural fruits, (especially collectively) fruit.

verb (used with or without object)

to bear or cause to bear fruit: a tree that fruits in late summer; careful pruning that sometimes fruits a tree.

VIDEO FOR FRUIT

WATCH NOW: Are These Foods Fruits, Vegetables, Or Berries?

How can we know what is a fruit? A vegetable? A berry? A nut? Doesn't it seem like it's always changing? Why is it so confusing?

MORE VIDEOS FROM DICTIONARY.COM

Origin of fruit

1125–75; Middle English < Old French < Latin frūctus enjoyment, profit, fruit, equivalent to frūg-, variant stem of fruī to enjoy the produce of + -tus suffix of v. action

OTHER WORDS FROM fruit

fruit·like, adjective

Example sentences from the Web for fruit

British Dictionary definitions for fruit

fruit
/ (fruːt) /

noun

verb

to bear or cause to bear fruit

Derived forms of fruit

fruitlike, adjective

Word Origin for fruit

C12: from Old French, from Latin frūctus enjoyment, profit, fruit, from frūī to enjoy

Scientific definitions for fruit

fruit
[ frōōt ]

The ripened ovary of a flowering plant that contains the seeds, sometimes fused with other parts of the plant. Fruits can be dry or fleshy. Berries, nuts, grains, pods, and drupes are fruits.♦ Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries alone, such as the tomato and pea pod, are called true fruits. ♦ Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries and other parts such as the receptacle or bracts, as in the apple, are called accessory fruits or false fruits. See also aggregate fruit multiple fruit simple fruit. See Note at berry.

Usage

To most of us, a fruit is a plant part that is eaten as a dessert or snack because it is sweet, but to a botanist a fruit is a mature ovary of a plant, and as such it may or may not taste sweet. All species of flowering plants produce fruits that contain seeds. A peach, for example, contains a pit that can grow into a new peach tree, while the seeds known as peas can grow into another pea vine. To a botanist, apples, peaches, peppers, tomatoes, pea pods, cucumbers, and winged maple seeds are all fruits. A vegetable is simply part of a plant that is grown primarily for food. Thus, the leaf of spinach, the root of a carrot, the flower of broccoli, and the stalk of celery are all vegetables. In everyday, nonscientific speech we make the distinction between sweet plant parts (fruits) and nonsweet plant parts (vegetables). This is why we speak of peppers and cucumbers and squash-all fruits in the eyes of a botanist-as vegetables.

Cultural definitions for fruit

fruit

In botany, the part of a seed-bearing plant that contains the fertilized seeds capable of generating a new plant (see fertilization). Fruit develops from the female part of the plant. Apples, peaches, tomatoes, and many other familiar foods are fruits.

Idioms and Phrases with fruit

fruit

see bear fruit; forbidden fruit.