apple
Synonym discussion
Sense: noun/1
For this sense, apple names one specific fruit, so it is narrower than fruit, which can mean many kinds of sweet plant food. Pear is another round fruit, but it is usually softer and has a different shape, often wider at the bottom. Peach is softer too, and it has a stone in the middle instead of the small seeds an apple has. In everyday English, use apple when you mean this common red, green, or yellow fruit exactly. You can say We picked apples from the tree, but not We picked fruit from the tree if you need to show the kind clearly.
Common collocations
Nouns
- apple tree
- apple juice
- apple pie
- apple slices
Phrases
- eat an apple
- pick apples
- cut up an apple
Etymology
Apple is a very old English word. It comes from Old English aeppel, from an earlier Germanic root used for this fruit and sometimes for fruit more generally. Over time, English kept apple as the usual everyday name for this one kind of fruit.