# plum

Pronunciation: say "PLUM" /plʌm/

## Noun

1. A round or oval stone fruit with smooth skin, juicy flesh, and a single hard pit, borne by trees of the genus Prunus.
   - Simple: A soft, juicy, round fruit with smooth purple, red, or yellow skin and one hard seed.
   - _He sliced a plum and tossed it into the summer salad._
   - _The market sold ripe plums by the crate every August._
2. An edible, fleshy fruit that resembles a plum but is borne by a tree or shrub outside the genus Prunus; also the tree on which it grows.
   - Simple: A soft fruit you can eat, with one big seed, from a tree much like the plum, or the tree itself.
   - _Jamun trees line the road outside the village, and in early summer their dark purple plums stain the asphalt._
   - _Harvesters in northern Australia gather the sour green fruit of the Kakadu plum from wild trees._
3. A dark bluish-red color, matching the skin of ripe plums.
   - Simple: A dark reddish-purple color, like the skin of the fruit.
   - _The designer chose plum for the fall collection's main coats._
   - _Deep plum looks striking against pale gray walls._
5. A highly desirable thing of its kind; a prize selection, or an especially good job, appointment, or assignment.
   - Simple: A very good or special thing that many people want, like a great job or prize.
   - _The ambassadorship was the biggest plum the new government had to hand out._
   - _Among all the contracts up for bid, that one was the plum everyone wanted._
7. A tree or shrub, cultivated or wild, of any of various Prunus species that bears plums.
   - Simple: A tree or bush that grows plums.
   - _The orchard's oldest plum still bears heavily after forty years._
   - _A plum can take several years to mature before it fruits well._
10. A foolish or stupid person. *(UK)*
   - Simple: A silly or foolish person.
   - _You absolute plum, you've put the milk in the cupboard again._
   - _Only a plum would forget his own phone number._
11. A testicle, one of the pair of male reproductive glands. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A man's testicle.
   - _He took a knock to the plums during the rugby match._
   - _The soccer ball hit him in the plums, and he doubled over in pain._

## Adjective

4. Of a dark bluish-red color.
   - Simple: Having a dark reddish-purple color.
   - _He chose a plum suit for the evening event._
   - _The walls were painted a deep plum tone._
6. Especially desirable, lavish, or preferred; choice of its kind.
   - Simple: Very good and much wanted, the best kind of its sort.
   - _The reporter was given the plum assignment of covering the royal tour._
   - _Investors competed for the plum positions on the new board._

## Adverb

8. Completely or utterly; to the fullest degree. *(colloquial, US)*
   - Simple: Completely or all the way, used to make a word stronger.
   - _By the end of the day the dog was plum exhausted._
   - _He was plum certain he'd locked the door, yet found it open._

## Noun

9. A raisin or dried grape, especially as baked into a pudding or cake. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A raisin or dried grape baked into a pudding or cake.
12. A sum of one hundred thousand pounds; more broadly, a great fortune. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A very large amount of money, or a fortune.

## Other meanings

- (noun) An apricot or apricot tree, of Prunus section Armeniaca, counted among the plum-like stone fruits.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–7, 9–12** — The word goes back to Latin prūnum, which Proto-West Germanic borrowed as *plūmā. This became Old English plūme and later Middle English plomme or ploume. It shares its origin with prune, so the two words are doublets.
**Meaning 8** — A phonetically based spelling of 'plumb'.

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