Definitions

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

  • noun A round, often large squash with coarse, strongly flavored yellow to orange flesh, numerous seeds, and a moderately hard, usually orange rind.
  • noun Any of several plants producing these fruits, especially varieties of the species Cucurbita pepo, and also varieties of C. maxima and C. moschata.
  • noun A moderate to strong orange.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The fruit of a variety of Cucurbita Pepo; also, the plant which produces it.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A well-known trailing plant (Cucurbita pepo) and its fruit, -- used for cooking and for feeding stock; a pompion.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The common pondfish.

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

  • noun A domesticated plant, Cucurbita pepo, similar in growth pattern, foliage, flower, and fruit to the squash or melon.
  • noun The round yellow or orange fruit of this plant.
  • noun The color of the fruit of the pumpkin plant.
  • noun Australia Any of a number of cultivars from the genus Cucurbita; known in the US as winter squash.
  • noun US A term of endearment for someone small and cute.

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

  • noun usually large pulpy deep-yellow round fruit of the squash family maturing in late summer or early autumn
  • noun a coarse vine widely cultivated for its large pulpy round orange fruit with firm orange skin and numerous seeds; subspecies of Cucurbita pepo include the summer squashes and a few autumn squashes

Etymologies

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

[Alteration (influenced by –kin) of obsolete pumpion, from obsolete French pompon, popon, from Old French pepon, from Late Latin pepōn, from Latin, watermelon or gourd, from Greek, ripe, large melon; see pekw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French pompon, from Latin pepō, from Ancient Greek πέπων (pepōn, "large melon"), from πέπων (pepōn, "ripe"), from πέπτω (peptō, "ripen").

Support

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

Examples

Comments

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

  • Carve one up to your own standards here

    Happy Halloween!

    October 20, 2007

  • Ah, pumpkin. I had that nickname as a child. It was pronounced PUMP! kin.

    *waiting to see if Seanahan will add PUMP!kin* ;)

    October 20, 2007

  • I allus liked the pronunciation pukkin!

    October 21, 2007

  • What you should be waiting to see, Jennarenn, is whether or not your shirt is stabby proof.

    October 21, 2007

  • Umm... I do hope you're joking...?

    I really like the word "stabby," but it's kind of creepy to read comments about stabbing people. Maybe it's coming off in a less amusing way than you intended...?

    October 21, 2007

  • I like pukkin. :) I think we all understand that you were joking, but I much prefer when stabby is directed at the words themselves.

    October 21, 2007

  • I figured it would be disturbing if I said "stab proof", since I'm pretty sure that "stabby proof" has no semantic meaning, but I should make it clear my feelings were directed at PUMP! kin.

    October 21, 2007

  • Ahh. That explains it. Thanks for clarifying, seanahan!

    I'm not sure I like pukkin at all. I do, however, like punkin.

    October 22, 2007

  • Jeez, first we're talking about throwing a Wordie off Wordie, then stabbing another? Yeah, we should stick to talking about pumpkins.

    October 22, 2007

  • pumpkin: another term for incest

    December 9, 2007

  • Overheard today. Friend to husband: "You hate my pumpkin underwear."

    April 20, 2008

  • I don't get how this thing is related to the pump.

    May 20, 2009

  • I used this term on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) to indicate the time I really really no joke had to stop talking to my friend and go to bed. (In reference to Cinderella's midnight deadline).


    "FYI, pumpkin is 11:30 tonight. I have a test first thing tomorrow."

    September 17, 2015

  • Usage/historical note on pompions.

    January 8, 2017