Berries

How to spell berries

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce berries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does berries mean?

1. nounSmall, round, soft fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries.

Berries in a sentence

• She picked a basket of ripe berries from the hedgerow.

• The recipe calls for a handful of mixed berries on top.

Where does berries come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the plural of 'berry', which descends from the Old English 'berie' or 'berige', a word of Germanic origin shared with the Dutch 'bes' and the German 'Beere'. The original sense simply meant a small, round, juicy fruit, and in early use it could even cover grapes, since the same root sits inside the old word 'wineberry'. The singular 'berry' keeps its y, but English follows the regular rule that a noun ending in a consonant plus y forms its plural by changing the y to i and adding -es, which is exactly where 'berries' comes from. That y-to-ies switch is the only real spelling trap here, since the word otherwise sounds and looks straightforward. The botanical and everyday senses have stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years, making it one of the older surviving fruit words in the language.

How the word is built

• berry (from Old English berie: a soft small fruit)
• -ies (plural formed by changing y to ies)