Meaning & use
carambole
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Meanings
nouncountable
A yellow-green tropical fruit with ridged sides that form a star shape when it is sliced across.
Grammar: Counts as one fruit: a carambole, two caramboles.
Patterns
- slice a carambole
She garnished the dessert with thin slices of carambole.
A ripe carambole tastes sweet and slightly sour, like a mix of apple and grape.
We bought a carambole at the market just to see how it looked when cut.
nouncountablespecialist
In billiards, a shot in which the cue ball hits two other balls one after the other.
Grammar: Used in cue sports; the American spelling is usually carom.
Patterns
- play a carambole
He scored a neat carambole to finish the frame.
In French billiards, every point comes from a carambole.
The commentator praised the player's long carambole off the cushion.
Word forms
| plural | caramboles |
|---|
Common combinations
- slice of carambole
- Add a slice of carambole to the fruit salad.
- ripe carambole
- A ripe carambole turns golden yellow.
- carambole juice
- Carambole juice is popular in parts of Southeast Asia.
- carambole tree
- The carambole tree grew by the back fence.
- carambole shot
- His carambole shot clicked off two balls.
Synonyms and how they differ
- starfruit
- Starfruit is the everyday name, while carambole sounds more formal or botanical.
- carom
- Carom is the American spelling for the billiards shot and is not used for the fruit.
Word family
- carom noun/verb
- The billiards shot or to bounce off a surface.
- carambola noun
- An alternative spelling for the fruit and tree.
Commonly confused: carambole or caramel?
carambole vs caramel
They look similar but caramel is a sweet burnt-sugar sauce, not a fruit.
Practice
Which fruit looks like a star when you slice it across?
Choose one answer.
A carambole has five ridges that make star shapes when sliced. The other fruits are round or oval.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “carambole”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.