Meaning & use
tupelo honey
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Meaning
noununcountable
A light, mild honey made by bees that feed on the flowers of the tupelo tree, found mainly in the southeastern United States.
Grammar: No plural and no article: 'Tupelo honey is expensive.' Use 'some' or 'a jar of' to talk about an amount.
Patterns
- a jar of tupelo honey
- tupelo honey is produced in ...
The bakery uses tupelo honey in its cornbread because it is mild and does not overpower the other flavors.
A jar of real tupelo honey can cost twice as much as ordinary supermarket honey.
Beekeepers in Florida move their hives to the swamps when the tupelo trees bloom.
Common combinations
- pure tupelo honey
- The label says pure tupelo honey, so it should not contain any syrup.
- a jar of tupelo honey
- She brought back a jar of tupelo honey from her trip to Georgia.
- tupelo honey harvest
- The tupelo honey harvest was small this year because of heavy rain.
- raw tupelo honey
- Raw tupelo honey is not heated, so it keeps more of its natural flavor.
Synonyms and how they differ
- honey
- The general word for the sweet substance; tupelo honey is one specific type, so 'honey' is broader and less precise.
Commonly confused: tupelo honey or Tupelo?
tupelo honey vs Tupelo
Tupelo is also the name of a city in Mississippi, so the phrase can refer to honey from that area, but the honey is named after the tree, not the city.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'tupelo honey' correctly.
Choose one answer.
'Tupelo honey' is uncountable, so it has no plural and takes no article: 'This tupelo honey tastes mild and floral' is correct. 'A tupelo honey' and 'tupelo honeys' are wrong because you cannot count it directly. The sentence with 'honeys' is also wrong for the same reason.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tupelo honey”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.