Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several treelike plants of the genus Musa, especially M. acuminata, having a terminal crown of large, entire leaves and a hanging cluster of fruits.
  • noun The elongated, edible fruit of these plants, having a thick yellowish to reddish skin and whitish, pulpy flesh.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The papaw.
  • noun Also called false banana.
  • noun An endogenous plant of the genus Musa, M. sapientum, now cultivated for its fruit everywhere in the tropics.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A perennial herbaceous plant of almost treelike size (Musa sapientum); also, its edible fruit. See musa.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a small American bird (Icterus leucopteryx), which feeds on the banana.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a small bird of tropical America, of the genus Certhiola, allied to the creepers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An elongated curved fruit, which grows in bunches, and has a sweet creamy flesh and a smooth yellow skin.
  • noun The tropical treelike plant which bears clusters of bananas. The plant, of the genus Musa, has large, elongated leaves and is related to the plantain.
  • noun uncountable A yellow colour, like that of a banana's skin.
  • noun mildly pejorative, slang, ethnic slur A person of Asian descent, especially a Chinese American, who has assimilated into Western culture or married a Caucasian (from the “yellow” outside and “white” inside). Compare coconut ("assimilated Hispanic or Black").
  • adjective Curved like a banana, especially of a ball in flight.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun elongated crescent-shaped yellow fruit with soft sweet flesh
  • noun any of several tropical and subtropical treelike herbs of the genus Musa having a terminal crown of large entire leaves and usually bearing hanging clusters of elongated fruits

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Portuguese and Spanish, from Wolof, Mande, and Fulani.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Wolof banaana, via Spanish or Portuguese.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Move in a curve to allow the camera to see behind you.

    May 13, 2008

  • Did you know

    humans share about 50% of their DNA with bananas?

    Sigma-Aldrich ad.

    (Sorry, chained_bear)

    September 26, 2008

  • Just proves my longstanding belief that humans, too, suck.

    ;)

    September 26, 2008

  • Bahumanana nature.

    September 26, 2008

  • You been hanging with the wrong bunch c_b.

    September 26, 2008

  • AHUH! AHUH-HUH!! <---upper-class twit laugh

    September 26, 2008

  • Oh, excuse me. I must have wandered onto the Corny Jokes page.

    *wanders off*

    September 26, 2008

  • *reesetee slips up on banana skin*

    September 26, 2008

  • Aren't the corny jokes on maize?

    September 26, 2008

  • Ana, nab a banana.

    October 18, 2008

  • "It's like a banana saying 'I don't want to be a banana'. You're Spanish. Be Spanish."

    Simon Cowell on The X-Factor.

    October 26, 2008

  • Yes we have no Spaniards, no Spaniards today.

    October 26, 2008

  • Sweet mother of pearl.

    March 5, 2009

  • Oh, wow. I want it. I really do.

    March 6, 2009

  • Just makes me even less likely to ever want to eat a banana again. Eesh.

    Though I admit, for those who like to take bananas with them in lunch bags, this is a necessary item.

    March 6, 2009

  • What a dsgn piece of horror. Bananapocalypse. Now.

    March 6, 2009

  • Am I the only person that thinks that some people may use these items for...umm...something other than protecting bananas?

    March 6, 2009

  • Like safe sex? Hardly.

    March 6, 2009

  • Banana Guard

    Let's all protect our bananas.

    March 6, 2009

  • Oh no! There's not only THE ORIGINAL BANANA PROTECTOR, there are IMPOSTORS!

    I like this comment on Amazon:

    "No matter how curved my banana is, it always provides adequate protection, regardless of how dicey the situations. I love my bananas and i love my banana bunker. I own 4 and am saving up for blue!"

    - W.C. Page, 30 June 2008.

    March 6, 2009

  • Skipvia: No, you are not the only one. *shudders*

    March 6, 2009

  • ...Which one, and which color, would you buy as a fourth-year-anniversary gift?

    March 6, 2009

  • *whew*

    March 6, 2009

  • Please note that banana security issues have been on the agenda at least since abandannad.

    March 6, 2009

  • Skipvia: No, you're not.

    Prolagus: Definitely the green one.

    March 9, 2009

  • "Let's All Ignore the Phallic Implications of Bananas." (don't forget to click the "next" button for full enjoyment)

    June 30, 2009

  • Yeti penis? Haaaahahaha!

    Ew.

    July 9, 2009

  • How to open a banana like a monkey, here. (With thanks to Frindley.)

    Someone who desperately needs to see that video, here.

    July 17, 2009

  • "Also called false banana."

    August 18, 2021