Meaning & use
pomegranate
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Meanings
nouncountable
A round fruit with a tough red-brown skin that is full of small, juicy, ruby-colored seeds with a sweet-tart taste.
Grammar: Countable for the fruit: two pomegranates; the juice is uncountable: pomegranate juice.
Patterns
- a pomegranate seed
She cut the pomegranate in half and tapped out the seeds into a bowl.
Pomegranate juice stained his white shirt bright pink.
We sprinkled pomegranate over the salad for color and crunch.
nouncountablebiology
The shrub or small tree on which this fruit grows, native to western and central Asia.
Grammar: Refers to the plant: a pomegranate in the garden.
A pomegranate grows well in the dry climate of the valley.
The old pomegranate by the wall produces fruit every autumn.
Word forms
| plural | pomegranates |
|---|
Common combinations
- pomegranate seeds
- Pomegranate seeds add a sharp sweetness to yogurt.
- pomegranate juice
- He drinks a glass of pomegranate juice every morning.
- pomegranate molasses
- The recipe calls for a spoonful of pomegranate molasses.
- ripe pomegranate
- A ripe pomegranate feels heavy for its size.
- pomegranate tree
- They planted a pomegranate tree near the patio.
Synonyms and how they differ
- Chinese apple
- It is an old, rare name for the same fruit and is almost never used today, while pomegranate is the standard word.
- granadilla
- It is not a true synonym because it names a passion fruit relative, so using it for a pomegranate would be an error.
Word family
Commonly confused: pomegranate or grenade?
pomegranate vs grenade
Grenade comes from the same French root because of the fruit's shape, but it is an explosive, not food.
Practice
Which food is made up of many small juicy seeds inside a thick red skin?
Choose one answer.
A pomegranate holds many juicy seeds under a tough skin. A fig also has seeds, but they are tiny and the skin is soft.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pomegranate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.