strawberry
/ˈstɹɔˌbɛɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.72 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The sweet, usually red, edible accessory fruit of certain plants of the genus Fragaria.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Something resembling a strawberry, especially a reddish bruise, birthmark, or infantile hemangioma (naevus).
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A prostitute who exchanges sexual services for crack cocaine.
American usage; Countable; Slang; Uncountable
adj
Containing or having the flavor of strawberries.
Example Sentences
- "They went to pick strawberries today."
- "But when he saw that the goat had a fine conky nose and handsome curly whiskers [...] Egbert let out one yell and bolted straight across the strawberry beds."
- "Communication is a kind of beauty, he said – and “beauty manifests itself from the noun itself, without strawberries on the cake.”"
- "Is there a sweeter time of year than strawberry season? As soon as the trees start bursting into pink buds, the first strawberries can’t be far behind at the farmers market."
- "She has the best strawberry patch I've ever seen."
- "He told his father, and said it would be just suitable work for him to run about fields and woods amongst the strawberry hills after a flock of hares, and now and then lie down and take a nap on some sunny hill."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ster- Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- Proto-Indo-European *strew-der. Proto-Germanic *strawą Proto-West Germanic *strau Old English strēaw Proto-Germanic *bazją Proto-West Germanic *baʀi Old English berġe Old English strēawberġe Middle English strawberie English strawberry From Middle English strawberie, strawbery, from Old English strēawberġe, corresponding to straw + berry. Of various theories advanced to explain the name, the two most plausible are: # from the fact that wild strawberries grow on straw-like runners (compare Norwegian stråbær, denoting cranberries, which grow in a similar way); # from the practice, still common in parts of Europe, of gathering strawberries by stringing them on a straw or stalk.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: strawberie, strēawberġe
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈstɹɔˌbɛɹi/
- British English: /ˈstɹɔːb(ə)ɹi/
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage
- Slang
- Intransitive verb
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
alpine strawberry
barren strawberry
beach strawberry
bog strawberry
Chilean strawberry
Chinese strawberry tree
coastal strawberry
creeping strawberry pine