Mango
nounA sweet, fleshy tropical fruit with golden-orange flesh and a single large flat stone.
How to spell mango
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce mango
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does mango mean?
- nounA sweet, fleshy tropical fruit with golden-orange flesh and a single large flat stone.
Mango in a sentence
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She sliced a ripe mango into the morning yoghurt.
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The smoothie recipe calls for one mango and a handful of berries.
Where does mango come from?
Language of origin: Other
The word came into English in the late 1500s, ultimately from the Tamil word mankay and the related Malayalam manga, which simply named the fruit of the tropical mango tree. Portuguese traders working along the coast of southern India picked up the local term, reshaping it as manga, and it was through that Portuguese trading form that the word spread into English and other European languages. The earlier English spelling sometimes appeared as 'mango' or 'mangas', settling on the familiar -o ending that echoes the Portuguese plural. For a long time in colonial English the word also came to mean any pickled fruit or vegetable, since unripe mangoes were commonly preserved in vinegar, which is why old recipe books mention 'mango' melons. Today the spelling is wholly settled and the trap, if any, is only the plural, which is conventionally written 'mangoes'.
How the word is built
- mango (from Tamil/Malayalam man-kay: mango fruit)
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