: the nut of the oak usually seated in or surrounded by a hard woody cupule of indurated bracts
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Examples of acorn in a Sentence
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The idea of Matos actually sustaining his hot streak is more than a baseball acorn to dig out of the winter tundra.—Grant Brisbee, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2025 Height and aesthetics are the two key differences between acorn and cobra-head lights.—Noah Lyons, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Aug. 2025 The United States grew from a tiny acorn to a mighty oak without any material limitations on immigration for a century.—Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 31 July 2025 Now the car needs a new blower motor as a result of the grinding of the acorns by the cage style fan.—John Paul Senior Manager Public Affairs and Traffic Safety Aaa Northeast, Hartford Courant, 26 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for acorn
Word History
Etymology
Middle English akorn, akkorn (partially assimilated to corn "kernel, corn entry 1"), hakerne, accherne, accharne, going back to Old English æcern, going back to Germanic *akrana- (whence also Middle High German ackeran "tree nuts," Old Norse akarn, Gothic akran "fruit, produce"); akin to Old Irish írne "sloe, kernel," Welsh eirin "plums, sloes," aeron "fruits, berries," going back to Celtic *agrinyo-, *agranyo-; perhaps further akin to a Balto-Slavic word with an initial long vowel (Old Church Slavic agoda "fruit," Polish jagoda "berry," Lithuanian úoga)
Note:
Taken to be a derivative of Indo-European *h2eǵros "uncultivated field, pasture" (see acre), though this would seem to exclude the Balto-Slavic etymon, which lacks the suffix, from consideration. It is also not clear if fields, uncultivated or not, are the source of wild tree nuts.
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above
Time Traveler
The first known use of acorn was
before the 12th century
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