Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Fortunella, having small, edible, orangelike fruit.
- n. The fruit of these plants, having an acid pulp and a thin, edible rind. It is the smallest of the citrus fruits.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See cumquat.
Wiktionary
- n. A small, orange citrus-like fruit which is native to Asia.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Fortunella (formerly Citrus) of the rue family (
Rutaceae ) (especially Citrus Japonica) growing in China and Japan bearing small orange-colored edible fruits with thick sweet-flavored skin and sour pulp; also, any of the small acid, orange-colored citrus fruits of such plants, used mostly for preserves.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Fortunella bearing small orange-colored edible fruits with thick sweet-flavored skin and sour pulp
- n. small oval citrus fruit with thin sweet rind and very acid pulp
Etymologies
- From Cantonese 柑橘 (gam1 gwat1) or 金橘 ("golden tangerine"). Related to loquat – same second character. (Wiktionary)
- Chinese (Cantonese) kamkwat, equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) xīn, gold + Chinese (Mandarin) jú, orange, tangerine. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For anyone who's never tried one, a kumquat is about the size of a cherry tomato, and is somewhat like an orange in flavor and scent, except that the peel is sweet (and edible) and what little fruit there is is tart.”
“The word kumquat in itself is funny but porkquat is hilarious!”
“At some point when I was a kid, I saw the word kumquat and started using it as though it were an insult.”
“When it came time to choose favorites, every variety got at least one vote, but the kumquat was the winner with seven votes.”
“Chris Travers says: kumquat: This does not actually work, except via the placebo effect.”
“April 20, 2010, 5: 12 pm kumquat says: dearieme: To remove salt from food: add potato.”
“Also in the box: Onigiri, cucumber slices, half a kumquat, bell pepper hearts in hummus, homegrown sugar peas, parsley and an amarettini cookie.”
“My first task was to debone Duck confit after which the Restaurant decided to change an ingredient in a dish from quince to kumquat which put me in a position where my job was to seed kumquats for 5 hours.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kumquat’.
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Very Silly Words
A list of very silly sounding words, as well as words that are fun to say
badot, gardyloo, dingbat, gaffer, kine, haberdashery, forsooth, whey-faced, hoddypeak, brouhaha, widdershins, decemnovenarianize and 115 more...
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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food collection
bread, peel, pot, chorizo, Filet, olive, fill, Phyllo, dough, bake, mat, pinot and 988 more...
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Waffalage
waffle, confuzzled, boggle, aberrant, ploogie, kumquat, blether, witter, prattle, defenestrate, coprolite, rambutan and 14 more...
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Terms That Should Be Banished to a Km...
No one knows why.
steampunk, klangfarbenmelodie, twitterdom, imbroglio, maspeth, camcorder, cicada, charcuterie, giggle, hortatory, susurration, bensonhurst and 16 more...
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Fruit, Sex and Other Morsels
Because drippy passionfruit, and he was pricked pineapple but sometime around cherry durian blond twins started persimmon, lychee papaya and before we knew it, quince plum mango mango and O O O Ora...
sweetsop, canistel, velvet apple, sticky, viscid, ganache, damson, rambutan, papain, fruit bat, spread, cream and 6 more...
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Ugliest Sounding Words
List words that sound ugly, regardless of meaning
kumquat, milk, meal, jizz, bubonic, fester, goulash, sasquatch, carbuncle, sieve, onomatopoeia, burlesque and 29 more...
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Things you can (or should) stuff insi...
Is it smaller than a breadbox? Is it too light to do damage if you hurled it from a trebuchet? Would it turn crispy and golden brown if you have the toaster on the right setting? If you answered "y...
things you can (o..., slice of white bread, slice of whole wh..., slice of rye bread, frozen waffle, garden burger, pop tart, postcard, leaf of iceberg l..., English muffin, slice of pound cake, floppy disk and 48 more...
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Funny Words
gerbil, spleen, regurgitate, crevis, retro, orangutan, jiggly, ear, tart, pickle, fizzle, kapow and 4 more...
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words my students purport to love
utilize, pudding, Indeed, kumquat, spleen, schadenfreude, slush, juxtapose, discombobulate, brackish, resuscitate, vapid
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Words that are fun to say
gerbil, spleen, rickshaw, ripley, crevis, you, po, hermes, girl, yo, reality, grockle and 8 more...
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Sweet Smoke of Rhetoric
The ones with which I flavor my speech, and the ones I love to find peppered in literature.
perspicacious, acerbic, vituperation, loquacious, castigate, vitriolic, scintillating, provenance, frolic, attendant, pursuant, epistemology and 313 more...
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Systems of Survival
Words from the book by Jane Jacobs.
Jane Jacobs, Systems of Survival, system, survival, Ralph Waldo Emerson, morals, values, territories, trade, working life, loyal, honest and 123 more...
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Not Quite As Awful As They Sound
masticate, absquatulate, adumbrate, afflatus, fetial, anile, bilabial, cineaste, smew, copse, piebald, testudinate and 156 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kumquat.
bilby Also cumquat. In Australia it's not widespread as a commercial fruit. It's popular as an ornamental citrus, and one that will do well in colder areas. Some people make marmalade from the fruit. Nov 25, 2008
dimã©lion are you all serious? i've ne'er had the pleasure of this kumquat... i'll have to locate one. Nov 25, 2008
asativum Too true, kewpid. I accidentally bought some all-sweet kumquats the other month, and they weren't worth eating. (I didn't read the label.) But I suspect all-sour kumquats would lack something too. Jun 24, 2008
kewpid Yummy! Though I kinda like them because of the sour core, not the sweet exterior. Jan 24, 2008
asativum Oh, man, kumquats are great. Tart, sweet; pop 'em in your mouth and eat 'em whole... And don't forget the limequat, lemonquat and the rest of their -quat ilk. Dade City, Fla., has an annual kumquat festival. Jan 24, 2008
goatboy Do you always have to sound so flirtatious, you big kumquat tart? Jan 24, 2008
brusselsprouts I love it too...who wants to eat them. They sound so kinky :) Jan 24, 2008
iansealy My favourite word. Jan 18, 2007