# zucchini

Pronunciation: US say "zoo-KEE-nee" /zuːˈkiː.ni/; AUS say "zuh-KEE-nee"

## Noun

1. The long, green-skinned edible fruit of the Cucurbita pepo squash, eaten as a vegetable. *(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Philippines, US)*
   - Simple: A long green vegetable with smooth skin, cooked and eaten in many dishes.
   - _She stuffed each zucchini with rice and baked them until tender._
   - _The recipe called for two zucchini, grated and squeezed dry._
2. A variety of summer squash, Cucurbita pepo, grown for its edible green fruit. *(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Philippines, US)*
   - Simple: A garden plant that grows long green vegetables during the summer.
   - _The zucchini in our garden produced more fruit than we could eat._
   - _Zucchini thrives in warm soil and full sun._

## Origin

Borrowed from Italian zucchini, the plural of zucchino, a diminutive of zucca ("squash"). It is ultimately related to "courgette" through the original Latin cucurbita.

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