# melon

Pronunciation: say "MEL-uhn" /ˈmɛlən/

## Noun

1. A large, round to oval fruit with a rind, borne by certain plants of the gourd family.
   - Simple: A large, round fruit with a thick rind and sweet, juicy flesh inside.
   - _The melon split open to reveal cool, fragrant flesh._
   - _Roadside growers piled their melons high beside the highway._
2. Any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae that are grown for food, generally other than the cucumber.
   - Simple: Any of several food plants in the same plant family as the cucumber, though usually not the cucumber itself.
   - _A melon will sprawl across the whole garden unless you train it up a trellis._
   - _Farmers in the valley rotate melons with corn to keep soil diseases from building up._
3. A slang word for a woman's breasts, most often used in the plural. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude, playful word for a woman's breasts.
   - _A low neckline left one melon almost on display at the party._
   - _He muttered a crude comment about her melons and got slapped._
4. A slang term for a person's head. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A casual slang word for a person's head.
   - _She rapped her knuckles against his melon and told him to wake up._
   - _One wild pitch caught the batter right on the melon._
5. A light pinkish-orange color, resembling the flesh of certain melons.
   - Simple: A light pinkish-orange color, like the inside of some melons.
   - _The designer chose melon for the curtains to warm up the room._
   - _Her dress was a pale melon that complemented her tan._
7. Slang for a breast, especially that of an adult or adolescent woman. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A slang word for a woman's breast.
   - _She joked that the dress flattened her into having only half a melon._
   - _The comic mimed cupping a single melon to get a laugh._
8. A mass of fatty tissue in the forehead of all toothed whales, used to focus and modulate their vocalizations.
   - Simple: A lump of fatty tissue in the forehead of toothed whales that helps them aim their sounds.
   - _The dolphin's melon bulged slightly as it produced a rapid series of clicks._
   - _Researchers used scans to map the fatty tissue of the melon across several whale species._

## Adjective

6. Of a light pinkish-orange color, resembling the flesh of certain melons.
   - Simple: Having a light pinkish-orange color, like the inside of some melons.
   - _The bridesmaids carried melon ribbons down the aisle._
   - _They repainted the cafe in melon and cream._

## Noun

9. Alternative form of mellon, a compound of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen. *(rare)* — Alternative form of mellon.
   - Simple: Another spelling of mellon, a chemical compound of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen. It is not the fruit.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The plant Momordica charantia, the bitter melon, a tropical vine grown for its bitter, warty fruit.
- (noun) The plant Benincasa hispida, the winter melon, grown for its large fruit with a waxy skin and mild white flesh.
- (noun) An insulting name for a member of the Green Party or a similar environmental group.

## Origin

From Middle English meloun, from Old French melon and Late Latin melonem, going back to Latin melopeponem and Ancient Greek mēlopépōn, a compound of mêlon ("apple") and pépōn ("ripe").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/melon (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).