Definitions

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

  • noun A tropical evergreen tree (Tamarindus indica) of the pea family, native to Africa and and widely cultivated as an ornamental and for its pods, which contain small seeds embedded in a sticky edible pulp.
  • noun The fruit of this tree.
  • noun Syrup prepared from the pulp of this fruit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The fruit of the leguminous tree Tamarindus Indica; also, the tree itself.
  • noun The brown tamarind.
  • noun In Jamaica, a large tree, Pithecolobium filicifolium (Acacia arborea).
  • noun In Trinidad, Pentaclethra filamentosa, a leguminous tree also found in Guiana, Nicaragua, etc.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A leguminous tree (Tamarindus Indica) cultivated both the Indies, and the other tropical countries, for the sake of its shade, and for its fruit. The trunk of the tree is lofty and large, with wide-spreading branches; the flowers are in racemes at the ends of the branches. The leaves are small and finely pinnated.
  • noun One of the preserved seed pods of the tamarind, which contain an acid pulp, and are used medicinally and for preparing a pleasant drink.
  • noun a preparation of a variety of East Indian fish with the acid pulp of the tamarind fruit.
  • noun One of the small black velvety pods, which are used for food in Sierra Leone.
  • noun (Bot.) a name given to certain trees somewhat resembling the tamarind, as the Lysiloma latisiliqua of Southern Florida, and the Pithecolobium filicifolium of the West Indies.

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

  • noun A tropical tree, Tamarindus indica.
  • noun The fruit of this tree; the pulp is used as spice in Asian cooking and in Worcestershire sauce.

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

  • noun large tropical seed pod with very tangy pulp that is eaten fresh or cooked with rice and fish or preserved for curries and chutneys
  • noun long-lived tropical evergreen tree with a spreading crown and feathery evergreen foliage and fragrant flowers yielding hard yellowish wood and long pods with edible chocolate-colored acidic pulp

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French tamarinde, from Arabic tamr hindī : tamr, dates; see tmr in Semitic roots + hindī, of India (from Hind, India, from Persian; see Hindi).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French tamarinde, from Arabic تمر هندي (tamr hindī).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tamarind.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.