mango
Formsmangoes, mangoing, mangoed
- 1A sweet, juicy tropical fruit with a single large flat seed inside.
Like a peach, but bigger and with one large flat seed in the middle.
She cut the mango into thin slices for dessert.
Ripe mangoes taste sweet with a slightly tangy edge.
UsageSay a mango, two mangoes for whole fruits, and some mango for pieces of it.
Note
- 2A tall tropical tree that produces sweet mangoes.
Like an apple tree, but it grows in hot places and gives mangoes.
They planted a mango in the backyard for shade and fruit.
The old mango tree by the gate flowers every spring.
UsagePeople often say mango tree to be clear. The plural is mangoes or mangos.
Note
- 3A warm yellow-orange shade, like the inside of a ripe mango.
Like the color of a ripe peach or a glowing sunset.
She painted the bedroom wall a bright mango.
He chose mango curtains to brighten the kitchen.
Less common meanings
- 4To stuff a fruit with spices and then pickle it.
For this cookbook, I made mangoed peppers that were not stuffed with cabbage, but stuffed with green and red tomatoes and onions.
2008, Beverly Ellen Schoonmaker Alfeld, Pickles To RelishHere, mangoed means stuffed with a filling and then pickled.Although any melon may be used before it is quite ripe, yet there is a particular sort for this purpose, which the gardeners know, and should be mangoed soon after they are gathered.
1870, Hannah Mary Peterson, The Young Wife's Cook BookUsageThe forms are mangoes, mangoing and mangoed.
Similarpickle
Note
- 5A bell pepper, usually a green one.
Cut tops from mangoes; remove seeds.
1943, Mary Adgate, “Stuffed Mangoes”Here, mangoes means bell peppers, usually green ones.Mango peppers by the dozen, if owned by the careful housewife, would gladden the appetite or disposition of any epicure or scold.
1879, Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, Agriculture of PennsylvaniaNote
- 6A fruit or vegetable that has been stuffed with spices and pickled.
In Pennsylvania and western Maryland, mangoes were generally made with green bell peppers.
2004, Elizabeth E. Lea, William Woys Weaver - 7A type of tropical hummingbird native to the Americas.
- 8A kind of melon that is one type of muskmelon.
- 9An informal word for a woman's breasts.
Showing meanings only.
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Origin
English took this word from Portuguese "manga", which came from the Malayalam word "māṅṅa" (or Tamil "māṅkāy"). It goes back to a Dravidian word meaning "unripe mango."
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- English borrowed mango from Portuguese manga. en.wiktionary.org
- Portuguese manga derives from Malayalam māṅṅa or Tamil māṅkāy. en.wiktionary.org
- The word ultimately derives from a Dravidian compound meaning unripe mango. en.wiktionary.org