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Meaning & use

Indian fig tree

noun·Advanced

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UK/ˌɪndiən ˈfɪɡ triː/
US/ˌɪndiən ˈfɪɡ triː/

Meanings

  1. nouncountable

    The banyan, a very large tree of South Asia that sends roots down from its branches until they grow into extra trunks.

    Grammar: Countable: an Indian fig tree, two Indian fig trees. The first word is capitalized.

    Patterns

    • an Indian fig tree in somewhere

    A huge Indian fig tree shaded the whole village square.

    The Indian fig tree seemed more like a small forest than a single plant.

    Travelers rested beneath an Indian fig tree to escape the midday sun.

  2. nouncountableregional

    In some regions, the prickly pear cactus, which bears sweet, edible fruit.

    Grammar: A regional meaning; context shows which plant is meant.

    Along the dry coast, people sell the fruit of the Indian fig tree from roadside carts.

    In parts of the Mediterranean, the plant called the Indian fig tree is really a cactus.

Word forms

pluralIndian fig trees

Common combinations

shade of an Indian fig tree
They held the village meeting in the shade of an Indian fig tree.
ancient Indian fig tree
An ancient Indian fig tree stands in the temple garden.
aerial roots of the Indian fig tree
The aerial roots of the Indian fig tree drop to the ground and thicken.
sacred Indian fig tree
The sacred Indian fig tree draws visitors every spring.

Synonyms and how they differ

banyan
Banyan is the common, shorter name for the same tree and is more widely known than Indian fig tree.
banyan tree
Banyan tree is the most common compound and means the same tree.
Ficus benghalensis
This is the scientific name, used in botany and not in everyday speech.
prickly pear
Prickly pear is the usual name for the cactus that is sometimes called Indian fig, and avoids confusion with the banyan.

Word family

fig noun
a soft sweet fruit, or the tree that bears it
banyan noun
another name for this spreading tree
Ficus noun
the botanical genus of fig trees

Commonly confused: Indian fig tree or peepal? Indian fig tree or common fig?

Indian fig tree vs peepal

The peepal, or sacred fig, is a different Indian fig species with heart-shaped leaves that does not grow aerial trunks.

Indian fig tree vs common fig

The common fig is the Mediterranean tree that gives ordinary figs, unlike the huge spreading banyan.

Practice

Which feature is most closely linked with the Indian fig tree?

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