plum

B2 Topic:Food & Drink

US /plʌm/ See IPA manual

Homophones

plumb /plʌm/

Freq #10060

Meanings

1

noun
A soft, round fruit with smooth skin and a single hard stone in the middle.

She picked a ripe plum from the tree.
2

adj
Very desirable, especially a job or position.

She landed a plum position at the firm.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

plumtree

Word family

Forms plums

Derived forms apple-plumapriumbeach-plumcocoplumdate-plumdoveplumhog-plumhogplumnectaplumpear-plumpersimmon-plumpigeonplum

Related forms briolettedamsongreengagemirabellemyrobalan prunesapoteslivovitzsloeumeboshiumesu

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

plum tree
a tree that produces plums

Noun + noun

Simplified etymology

Plum comes ultimately from Latin prunum, which also gave English prune. The shift from pr- to pl- reflects the close articulation of the sounds l and r and has parallels in other languages.

Etymology

From Middle English plomme, ploume, from Old English plūme, from Proto-West Germanic *plūmā, borrowed from Latin prūnum. Doublet of prune.

plomme Middle English plūme Old English *plūmā Proto-West Germanic prūnum Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Food & Drink

External links

# plum

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun, adj
**IPA (US):** /plʌm/
**Frequency rank:** 10060

## Meanings
1. A soft, round fruit with smooth skin and a single hard stone in the middle.
2. Very desirable, especially a job or position.

## Examples
- She picked a ripe plum from the tree.
- She landed a plum position at the firm.

## Synonyms
- plumtree

## Derived Forms
- apple-plum
- aprium
- beach-plum
- cocoplum
- date-plum
- doveplum
- hog-plum
- hogplum
- nectaplum
- pear-plum
- persimmon-plum
- pigeonplum

## Related Forms
- briolette
- damson
- greengage
- mirabelle
- myrobalan
- prune
- sapote
- slivovitz
- sloe
- umeboshi
- umesu

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: plomme
- Root: plūme
- Root: *plūmā
- Root: prūnum

## Etymology
From Middle English plomme, ploume, from Old English plūme, from Proto-West Germanic *plūmā, borrowed from Latin prūnum. Doublet of prune.

## AI Etymology
Plum comes from Middle English plomme, ploume, from Old English plūme, from Proto-West Germanic *plūmā, borrowed from Latin prūnum. Doublet of prune. The historical chain includes plomme (Middle English), plūme (Old English), *plūmā (Proto-West Germanic), prūnum (Latin). In present-day English it covers a soft, round fruit with smooth skin and a single hard stone in the middle and very desirable, especially a job or position. The wider family includes derived forms such as apple-plum, aprium, beach-plum, cocoplum, date-plum and related forms such as briolette, damson, greengage, mirabelle.

## Topics
- Food & Drink

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