Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Banana
Ba-na′na
(bȧ-nä′nȧ; 277)
, Noun.
[Sp.
banana
, name of the fruit.] (Bot.)
A perennial herbaceous plant of almost treelike size (
Musa sapientum
); also, its edible fruit. See Musa
. ☞ The banana has a soft, herbaceous stalk, with leaves of great length and breadth. The flowers grow in bunches, covered with a sheath of a green or purple color; the fruit is five or six inches long, and over an inch in diameter; the pulp is soft, and of a luscious taste, and is eaten either raw or cooked. This plant is a native of tropical countries, and furnishes an important article of food.
Banana bird
(Zool.)
, a small American bird (
– Icterus leucopteryx
), which feeds on the banana. Banana quit
(Zool.)
, a small bird of tropical America, of the genus
Certhiola
, allied to the creepers.Webster 1828 Edition
Banana
BAN'ANA
,Noun.
The fruit is four or five inches long, and an inch or more in diameter; the pulp soft and of a luscious taste. When ripe, it is eaten raw, or fried in slices. Bananas grow in large bunches weighing a dozen pounds or more. This tree is the native of tropical countries, and on many isles, constitutes an important article of food.
Definition 2024
banana
banana
English
Four different types of bananas. The larger yellow bananas on the far right are commercially dominant Cavendish bananas.
Noun
banana (countable and uncountable, plural bananas)
- An elongated curved tropical fruit that grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin.
- (US, Canada, and Europe) Especially, the sweet, yellow fruit of the Cavendish banana cultivar.
- The tropical tree-like plant which bears clusters of bananas. The plant, usually of the genus Musa but sometimes also including plants from Ensete, has large, elongated leaves and is related to the plantain.
- (uncountable) A yellow colour, like that of a banana's skin.
-
Pantone banana colour:
-
- (mildly pejorative, slang, ethnic slur) A person of Asian descent, especially a Chinese American, who has assimilated into Western culture or married a Caucasian (from the "yellow" outside and "white" inside). Compare coconut (“assimilated Hispanic or Black”) or Oreo (“Black person who is "black outside" and "white inside"”).
- (nuclear physics) banana equivalent dose
Synonyms
Antonyms
- (Asian assimilated into Western culture): egg (Western assimilated into Asian culture)
Coordinate terms
- (Asian assimilated into Western culture): coconut
Derived terms
Terms derived from banana
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Translations
fruit
|
|
plant
|
|
colour
Adjective
banana (not comparable)
- Curved like a banana, especially of a ball in flight.
- 2001, Rayne Barton, The Green Hills Golf Chronicles, page 155, ISBN 0738847917.
- Even the lowly banana ball, the bane of so many weekenders, sometimes can be exactly right, as in this case.
- 2002, Andrew Collins, Guild of Honor, page 53, ISBN 1403371490.
- He played the fading, low-banana shot as planned, and the ball whistled left of the oak tree and between the pines.
- 2006, Richard Witzig, The Global Art of Soccer, page 247, ISBN 0977668800.
- [...]Bernd Schneider closed the scoring in injury-time with a 23 meter free-kick banana shot into the upper-right corner.
- 2001, Rayne Barton, The Green Hills Golf Chronicles, page 155, ISBN 0738847917.
See also
Hypernyms
Cornish
Pronunciation
Noun
banana m (plural bananas)
Mutation
Mutation of banana
| Cornish consonant mutation | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unmutated | soft | aspirate | hard | mixed | mixed after 'th |
| banana | vanana | unchanged | panana | fanana | vanana |
Irish
Etymology
Noun
banana m (genitive singular banana, nominative plural bananaí)
Declension
Declension of banana
Fourth declension
|
Bare forms
|
Forms with the definite article
|
Mutation
| Irish mutation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
| banana | bhanana | mbanana |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | ||
Italian
Noun
banana f (plural banane)
- banana (fruit)
Noun
banana m (invariable)
- banana (color)
Adjective
banana (invariable)
Related terms
Lower Sorbian
Etymology
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /baˈnana/
Noun
banana f
Declension
Declension of banana
References
- banana in Manfred Starosta (1999): Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag.
Portuguese
bananas
Etymology
Uncertain. Possibly from Wolof banaana (“banana”) or Arabic بَنَان (banān, “fingertip, banana”).
Pronunciation
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /bɐˈnɐnɐ/
Noun
banana f (plural bananas)
- banana (fruit)
- Bananas são ricas em potássio - Bananas are high in potassium
- banana (plant)
- (pejorative, slang) wimp (a weak or inconfident person)
- Aquele rapaz é um banana! - That guy is a wimp!
- (informal) ****
Synonyms
- (plant): bananeira
Serbo-Croatian
Etymology
From Spanish, from Portuguese, from Wolof banaana.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /banǎːna/
- Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na
Noun
banána f (Cyrillic spelling бана́на)
Declension
Declension of banana
References
- “banana” in Hrvatski jezični portal
Tok Pisin
Etymology
Noun
banana
- banana
- 1995, John Verhaar, Toward a reference grammar of Tok Pisin: an experiment in corpus linguistics, ISBN 0-8248-1672-2, page 433:
- Mekim olsem pinis, orait tupela i planim taro na banana, na kumu, painap, kon, tomato, na kaukau tu.
-
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Welsh
Etymology
From English banana, from Wolof banaana.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /baˈnana/
Noun
banana f (plural bananas)
Synonyms
Mutation
| Welsh mutation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
| banana | fanana | manana | unchanged |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | |||