eggplant C2+ Topic:Food & Drink Also spelled egg-plant US /ˈɛɡplænt/ UK /ˈɛɡplɑːnt/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun a purple-skinned fruit eaten as a vegetable; the aubergine She grilled slices of eggplant with olive oil and garlic. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a purple-skinned fruit... auberginebrinjal Word family Related forms eggplant Etymology AI details An 18th-century compound of egg + plant, so named because early cultivated varieties bore small, white, egg-shaped fruit. æg Old English planta Latin View etymology graph -> Topics Food & Drink Plants & Agriculture Word Formation & Derivatives External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # eggplant **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈɛɡplænt/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈɛɡplɑːnt/ ## Meanings 1. a purple-skinned fruit eaten as a vegetable; the aubergine ## Examples - She grilled slices of eggplant with olive oil and garlic. ## Synonyms - aubergine - brinjal ## Related Forms - egg - plant ## Roots and Affixes - Root: æg - Root: planta ## Etymology An 18th-century compound of egg + plant, so named because early cultivated varieties bore small, white, egg-shaped fruit. ## AI Etymology Eggplant is an 18th-century compound of egg + plant, so named because early cultivated varieties bore small, white, egg-shaped fruit. Important recorded forms include æg (Old English) and planta (Latin). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers a purple-skinned fruit eaten as a vegetable; the aubergine. The wider family includes related words such as egg and plant. ## Topics - Food & Drink - Plants & Agriculture - Word Formation & Derivatives markdown