berry

B2 Topic:Food & Drink

US /ˈbɛri/ See IPA manual

Homophones

bury /ˈbeɹ.iː/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like very /v/ vs /b/ Sounds like belly /l/ vs /r/

Freq #9126

Meanings

1

noun
A small, soft, round fruit such as a strawberry or blueberry.

We picked wild berries along the path.
2

verb
To pick or gather berries.

On summer days Grandma used to take us berrying.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms berriedberriesberrying

Derived forms apple-berryappleberrybaneberrybarberrybayberrybeachberrybearberrybeautyberryberry-buttonberry-coneberryadeberryeater

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

juniper berry
the small fleshy cone of a juniper, often used as a spice

Noun + noun

Proverbs (1)

See all

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice

Etymology

From Middle English berȝe, berghe, from Old English beorġe, dative form of beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“mountain, hill”). More at barrow. Cognates Cognate with Scots burrow (“mound, tumulus, barrow”), North Frisian Bārig, beerch, beeri, beerj, berag, berig, berri, bärj (“mountain”), Saterland Frisian Bierich, Bíerig, Bäirch (“mountain”), West Frisian berch (“mountain”), Cimbrian pèrge (“mountain”), Dutch berg (“mountain”), German Berg (“mountain”), German Low German Barg (“mountain”), Limburgish berg, Bärrech (“hill, mou…

*bʰerǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European berȝe Middle English beorġe Old English *berg Proto-West Germanic *bergaz Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Food & Drink

External links

# berry

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈbɛri/
**Frequency rank:** 9126

## Meanings
1. A small, soft, round fruit such as a strawberry or blueberry.
2. To pick or gather berries.

## Examples
- We picked wild berries along the path.
- On summer days Grandma used to take us berrying.

## Derived Forms
- apple-berry
- appleberry
- baneberry
- barberry
- bayberry
- beachberry
- bearberry
- beautyberry
- berry-button
- berry-cone
- berryade
- berryeater

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *bʰerǵʰ-
- Root: berȝe
- Root: beorġe
- Root: *berg
- Root: *bergaz

## Etymology
From Middle English berȝe, berghe, from Old English beorġe, dative form of beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“mountain, hill”). More at barrow. Cognates Cognate with Scots burrow (“mound, tumulus, barrow”), North Frisian Bārig, beerch, beeri, beerj, berag, berig, berri, bärj (“mountain”), Saterland Frisian Bierich, Bíerig, Bäirch (“mountain”), West Frisian berch (“mountain”), Cimbrian pèrge (“mountain”), Dutch berg (“mountain”), German Berg (“mountain”), German Low German Barg (“mountain”), Limburgish berg, Bärrech (“hill, mou…

## AI Etymology
Berry comes from Middle English berȝe, berghe, from Old English beorġe, dative form of beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“mountain, hill”). More at barrow.

## Topics
- Food & Drink

markdown