capsicum

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various tropical American pepper plants of the genus Capsicum, especially any of the numerous cultivated forms of the species C. annuum and C. frutescens.
2. n. The fruit of any of these plants, especially the dried pungent types used as a condiment and in medicine.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of herbaceous or shrubby South American plants, natural order Solanaceæ, with a wheel-shaped corolla, projecting and converging stamens, and a many-seeded berry. Many of the species are very extensively cultivated for their fruit, which contains an exceedingly pungent principle, capsicin. The fruit or pod is fleshy and very variable in shape and color, sometimes inflated and as large as an orange. It is used for pickles, sauces, etc., and also in medicine as a valuable local and general stimulant. Cayenne or red pepper consists of the ground pods of various species, especially of C. fastigiatum, the African or Guinea pepper, or spur-pepper, and of the common red pepper of the garden, C. annuum. The pods of both of these species are also known as chillies, and before they are ground as pod peppers. C. baccatum is the berry-bearing capsicum, or bird-pepper, and C. fruticosum is the goat-pepper. The bonnet-pepper, C. tetragonum, has a large and very fleshy fruit, and is much cultivated in the West Indies. The cherry-pepper, C. cerasiforme, with small round fruit, is sometimes cultivated for ornament. The bell-pepper is a large-podded variety of C. annuum, of which there are many varieties.
2. n. [lowercase] A plant of this genus or its fruit.

Wiktionary

1. n. Any of several tropical American plants, of the genus Capsicum, principally the species Capsicum annuum and Capiscum frutescens, that are cultivated as edible peppers.
2. n. The spicy fruit of the above plants, the bell peppers.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A genus of plants of many species, producing capsules or dry berries of various forms, which have an exceedingly pungent, biting taste, and when ground form the red or Cayenne pepper of commerce.
2. n. Any plant of the genus Capsicum (of the Solanaceae family, which are unrelated to Piper), and its fruit; red pepper; chili pepper.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of various tropical plants of the genus Capsicum bearing peppers
2. n. chiefly tropical perennial shrubby plants having many-seeded fruits: sweet and hot peppers