pineapple
/ˈpaɪnəpəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.58 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A tropical plant, Ananas comosus, native to South America, having thirty or more long, spined and pointed leaves surrounding a thick stem.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
The ovoid fruit of the pineapple plant, which has very sweet white or yellow flesh, a tough, spiky shell and a tough, fibrous core.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A web burrfish (Chilomycterus antillarum, syn. Chilomycterus geometricus)
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A light yellow colour, like that of pineapple flesh (also called pineapple yellow).
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A hand grenade. (From the similarity to the shape of a pineapple fruit.)
Countable; Slang; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Spread lightly buttered white bread thinly with cream cheese; sprinkle with pineapple and press together, then cut the sandwiches in thin, slender strips."
- "'Twenty yards and they stop outside Car 245. Men with the rippers give a double squirt at your window. Open it up for the pineapple. Centre man tosses in the pineapple and all three run back to the car. Two seconds fuse. As they reach the car, BOOM! Fricassee of Compartment H.'"
Etymology
From Middle English pinappel (“pinecone”, literally “pine-apple/pine-fruit”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīnapplu. Later applied to the fruit of the pineapple plant due to its resemblance to a pinecone. Compare the Middle Dutch and Dutch pijnappel (“pinecone", formerly also "pineapple”), Afrikaans pynappel (“pineapple”), Middle Low German pinappel, Old High German pīnapful, Middle High German pīnaphel, and early Modern German pinapfel — all in the sense of “pine cone”. Compare also the post-Classical Latin pomum pini, the Old French pume de pin, the Middle French and French pomme de pin and Spanish piña. By surface analysis, pine + apple. Sense "An Australian fifty dollar note": From the yellow colour of a $50 banknote in the first, second, and third series of rice Australian dollar notes. Compare with lobster for a $20 Australian banknote, and watermelon for a $100 Australian banknote.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: pinappel, *pīnapplu
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpaɪnəpəl/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
crazy pineapple
fair suck of the pineapple
false pineapple
opal pineapple
pineapple bomb
pineapple bun
pineapple cake
pineapple chunks