Meaning & use
cranberry
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Meanings
nouncountable
A small, sour, dark red berry that grows on a low bush and is often cooked into sauce or squeezed for juice.
Grammar: Countable: one berry is a cranberry, several are cranberries.
Patterns
- a cranberry
- cranberries
- cranberry sauce
She added a handful of cranberries to the muffin batter.
Cranberry sauce is a traditional part of Thanksgiving dinner.
The farmer grows cranberries in flooded fields called bogs.
nouncountable
The low bush that produces these berries.
Grammar: Also countable; refers to the plant itself rather than the fruit.
Patterns
- a cranberry bush
- cranberry plants
Cranberries need acidic, wet soil to thrive.
The cranberry bushes turned red in early autumn.
Word forms
| plural | cranberries |
|---|
Common combinations
- cranberry sauce
- We always serve cranberry sauce with roast turkey.
- cranberry juice
- She drinks cranberry juice for its tart flavor.
- dried cranberries
- He sprinkled dried cranberries over his salad.
- cranberry bog
- The cranberry bog is harvested in the fall.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lingonberry
- A similar small tart red berry, but it grows in northern Europe and is used in different dishes.
Word family
- cranberry noun
- The berry or the bush itself.
Commonly confused: cranberry or raspberry?
cranberry vs raspberry
Both are small red berries, but raspberries are sweeter and grow on canes, not low shrubs.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'cranberry' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Cranberry juice is a common drink. Option 1 is wrong because cranberry is not used as a spread like butter; option 2 is wrong because cranberries are sour, not sweet; option 4 is wrong because cranberries are small and grow in cool climates.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cranberry”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.