Meaning & use
soursop
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A large, green, heart-shaped tropical fruit with soft, white, juicy flesh that tastes slightly sour and sweet.
Grammar: Countable when referring to a whole fruit: a soursop; uncountable when referring to the flesh or food: some soursop.
Patterns
- a soursop
- some soursop
- soursop juice
She bought a ripe soursop at the market.
The smoothie is made with soursop, banana, and a little honey.
In some countries, soursop is eaten with a spoon straight from the shell.
nouncountable
The evergreen tree that produces this fruit, native to tropical regions of the Americas.
Grammar: Refers to the tree itself; plural is soursops.
Patterns
- a soursop tree
- soursop trees
The soursop grows well in warm, humid climates.
They planted a soursop in their backyard.
Word forms
| plural | soursops |
|---|
Common combinations
- soursop juice
- Soursop juice is a popular drink in the Caribbean.
- soursop tree
- The soursop tree can reach up to 6 meters tall.
- ripe soursop
- A ripe soursop is soft to the touch.
- soursop flavor
- The ice cream has a distinct soursop flavor.
Synonyms and how they differ
- guanábana
- The Spanish name for the same fruit, often used in bilingual contexts.
- graviola
- Another name for soursop, especially in Brazil and in herbal medicine contexts.
Commonly confused: soursop or sweetsop?
soursop vs sweetsop
Sweetsop is a different tropical fruit (also called sugar apple) with a sweeter, custard-like flesh.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'soursop' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Soursop is a fruit, so 'soursop juice' is a natural collocation. Option 1 is wrong because soursop is not a bird; option 2 is wrong because it grows in tropical climates; option 3 is wrong because 'soursop' is not a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “soursop”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.