Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several trees of the genus Adansonia of Africa, Madagascar, and Australia, especially the tropical African species A. digitata, having palmately compound leaves, edible gourdlike fruits, and a broad trunk that stores water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An African tree, the Adansonia digitata, belonging to the tribe Bombaceæ; natural order Malvaceæ, also called the Ethiopian sour-gourd, and in South Africa the cream-of-tartar tree. It is a native of tropical Africa, and has been introduced and naturalized in various parts of the East and West Indies.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A gigantic African tree (Adansonia digitata), also naturalized in India. See adansonia.

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

  • noun A tree, Adansonia digitata (and similar species), native to tropical Africa, having a broad swollen trunk and edible gourd-like hanging fruits.

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

  • noun African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread

Etymologies

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

[New Latin bahobab, possibly from North African Arabic būḥibab, fruit of many seeds, from Arabic ’abū ḥibāb, source of seeds : ’ab, father, source; see ℵb in Semitic roots + ḥibāb, pl. of ḥabb, seed.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Arabic بو حباب (būħibāb, "father of many seeds"), from ابو (’abū, "father") + حب (ħabb, "seed").

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Examples

  • “The baobab is a most wonderful tree,” he chuckled, settling back against an outcropping of rock.

    Giants of the Bushveld 2008

  • There they were, isolated at the top of one of the larger branches shooting out in the midst of one of those miniature forests called baobab-trees.

    Five Weeks in a Balloon 2003

  • But this wonder will cease when I inform you, that the hallowing out of a chamber in the trunk of a baobab is a mere bagatelle, and costs but trifling labour.

    Ran Away to Sea Mayne Reid 1850

  • Africa -- the baobab, which is a vitamin and mineral-packed fruit that so far has only been enjoyed by locals, but is now acai-powered smoothie shops in Miami and Berkeley out of business.

    Fast Company 2010

  • Africa -- the baobab, which is a vitamin and mineral-packed fruit that so far has only been enjoyed by locals, but is now acai-powered smoothie shops in Miami and Berkeley out of business.

    Fast Company 2010

  • The baobab is a traditional food plant in Africa, but is little-known elsewhere.

    American Chronicle 2008

  • Fruits such as baobab (Adansonia digitata) and morula (Sclerocarya birrea) are exceptionally rich in the vitamin.

    Chapter 4 1999

  • “As they say an elephant never forgets, the baobab is the wise old sage of the soil, and they, too, never forget.

    Giants of the Bushveld 2008

  • Many hungry families are reportedly living on one meal a day, exchanging precious livestock for buckets of maize or eating wild foods such as baobab and amarula. "

    IRIN 2008

  • This land is home to the largest succulent plants found anywhere, the giant baobab trees that are sometimes more than two thousand years old, and camelthorn trees, which house the haystacksize communal nests of the weavers.

    The Bushman Way of Tracking God PhD Bradford Keeney 2010

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