Definition

1. Noun:
   • A long curved fruit with a yellow skin and soft, sweet, white flesh inside: This is the most common meaning, referring to the edible fruit.
   • A tropical plant that produces this fruit: This refers to the large herbaceous plant (genus Musa) with large leaves, often incorrectly called a tree.

Examples of Usage

• Noun (Fruit):
  • I ate a banana for breakfast.
  • The recipe calls for two ripe bananas.
• Noun (Plant):
  • A banana plant can grow very tall.
  • The wind damaged the banana crop.

Advanced Usage

• "To go bananas" (idiom): to become very excited, angry, or crazy.
  • The crowd went bananas when the band came on stage.
• "Top banana" (idiom, informal): the most important person in a group or organization; the leader.
  • He's the top banana in this company.

Variants and Related Words

• Banana skin (noun, British English): the peel of a banana; also used metaphorically for an unexpected problem or embarrassment.
  • He slipped on a banana skin. (literal)
  • The new policy turned out to be a political banana skin. (figurative)
• Banana republic (noun): a small country, especially in Central America, that is politically unstable and dependent on a single crop (like bananas) or foreign capital.
  • The novel is set in a corrupt banana republic.

Synonyms

• Plantain (noun): a type of banana that is larger, starchier, and usually cooked before eating.
• No direct single-word synonym for the common yellow dessert banana.

Related Phrases

• A bunch of bananas: a group of bananas growing together, which is the correct term for the entire cluster from a single plant.
  • We bought a bunch of bananas at the market.
• A hand of bananas: a subsection of a bunch, typically a cluster of 10-20 bananas.
  • The recipe said to use one hand of bananas.

Related Idioms

• Second banana (idiom, informal): a person who plays a secondary or supporting role to the main person.
  • He was tired of being the second banana and wanted his own show.

Noun

1. elongated crescent-shaped yellow fruit with soft sweet flesh
2. any of several tropical and subtropical treelike herbs of the genus Musa having a terminal crown of large entire leaves and usually bearing hanging clusters of elongated fruits