apple
Meanings
- A common, firm, round fruit produced by a tree of the genus Malus.
- The fruit of the tree Malus domestica, chiefly with a green, red, or yellow skin, cultivated in temperate climates for cidermaking, cooking, and eating.
- Often with a qualifying word: any fruit or vegetable, or any other thing (such as a cone or gall) produced by a plant, especially if from a tree and similar to the fruit of Malus domestica (noun sense 1.1).
- Something which resembles the fruit of Malus domestica (noun sense 1.1) in shape (such as a ball, breast, or globe) or colour.
- Ellipsis of Adam's apple (“the lump in the throat, usually more noticeable in men than in women; the laryngeal prominence”).
- Ellipsis of apple-green (“a bright green colour with a light tint of yellow, like that of a Granny Smith apple”).
- Ellipsis of apple of the eye (“the pupil, or pupil and iris, of the eye, originally believed to be spherical; also, the eyeball”).
- The round, fleshy part of a cheek between the eye and the corner of the mouth when a person is smiling.
- The surface of revolution of a circular arc of an angle greater than 180° rotated about the straight line passing through the arc's two endpoints.
- In full apple bowl: a round bowl of a tobacco pipe; also, a tobacco pipe with such a bowl.
- In full old apple: a baseball.
- According to postbiblical Christian tradition, the fruit of the tree of knowledge which was eaten by Adam and Eve despite God commanding them not to do so; the forbidden fruit.
- To make (something) appear like an apple (noun sense 1.1).
- To become like an apple.
- To collect fir-cones.
- Of a flower bud or vegetable (especially a root vegetable): to grow into the shape of an apple.
- Nickname for New York City: a major city in New York, United States; more commonly in the form the Big Apple.
- A female given name from English.
- A surname.
- A computer produced by the company Apple Inc.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl Proto-Germanic *aplaz Proto-West Germanic *applu Old English æppel Middle English appel English apple The noun is derived from Middle English appel (“Malus domestica fruit or tree, apple; any type of fruit, nut, or tuber; tree bearing fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; (Christianity) forbidden fruit in Eden”), from Old English æppel (“apple; any type of fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; eyeball”), from Proto-West Germanic *applu (“apple; any type of fruit”), from Proto-Germanic *aplaz (“apple; any type of fruit”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl, *h₂ébl̥ (“apple”). As regards noun sense 1.4 (“forbidden fruit”), the type of fruit eaten by Adam and Eve is not identified in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It may have come to be identified with the apple because of the similarity between Latin mālum (“apple”) and malum (“evil; misery, torment; wrongdoing”). The verb is derived from the noun. Cognates Cognate with Scots aipple (“apple”), North Frisian aapel, Oapel, ååpel (“apple”), Saterland Frisian Apel, Appel (“apple”), West Frisian apel, appel (“apple”), Alemannic German effél, epfel, epfil, öpfil (“apple”), Bavarian eipfele, epfl, Åpfe (“apple”), Cimbrian oupfal, öpfel, öpfl (“apple”), Dutch appel (“apple”), German Apfel (“apple”), German Low German Appel (“apple”), Limburgish Ape̩l, appel (“apple”), Luxembourgish Apel (“apple”), Mòcheno epfl (“apple”), Vilamovian epuł (“apple”), Yiddish עפּל (epl, “apple”), Danish æble (“apple”), Faroese epl, epli (“apple; potato”), Icelandic epli (“apple”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk eple (“apple”), Swedish äpple (“apple”), Crimean Gothic apel (“apple”), Irish úll (“apple”), Lithuanian óbuolỹs (“apple”), Russian я́блоко (jábloko, “apple”), Welsh afal (“apple”), possibly Ancient Greek ἄμπελος (ámpelos, “vine”).