banana

noun

ba·nana | \ bə-ˈna-nə

, especially British -ˈnä-\

Definition of banana

1 : an elongated usually tapering tropical fruit with soft pulpy flesh enclosed in a soft usually yellow rind a bunch of bananas slipped on a banana peel

2 : any of several widely cultivated perennial often treelike herbs (genus Musa of the family Musaceae, the banana family) bearing bananas in compact pendent bunches

Examples of banana in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

When Ali Stroker rolled onstage in her wheelchair to accept the for featured actress in a musical, audiences at home went bananas. — Jessica Gelt, latimes.com, "Reactions to Ali Stroker's historic Tony Awards win will make your heart soar," 9 June 2019 What Draper didn't actually install at the Greenbrier was one very recognizable banana leaf print. — Hadley Keller, House Beautiful, "Inside the Biggest Feud in Interior Design," 22 Mar. 2019 Every month or so, indigenous hunter-gatherers in the Philippines known as the Agta pick up their banana-leaf lean-tos and move to a different region of Northern Sierra Madre National Park. — Ferris Jabr, Harper's magazine, "The Story of Storytelling," 10 Mar. 2019 Llewellyn said Liege & Dairy will serve about 25 different ice cream flavors, including chocolate chip cookie dough, banana pudding and cookie butter. — Bailey Loosemore, The Courier-Journal, "Will Louisville's Holiday Manor be the next dining hotspot? Con Huevos thinks so," 8 Feb. 2018 The 28-day plan had her choosing her own breakfast — usually oatmeal with banana from the office cafeteria — and snacks (like trail mix), and then eating prepared meals for lunch and dinner. — Caroline Picard, Good Housekeeping, "A Plant-Based Diet, Like the One TODAY's Sheinelle Jones Is Following, Is 100% the Best Way to Eat," 29 Apr. 2019 Less than an hour outside of Kigali, the dusty, red field cuts across the otherwise green hill, which is covered in banana trees. — Caterina Clerici & Eléonore Hamelin, Marie Claire, "Rwanda's Future Is Female," 1 Feb. 2019 The 65-year-old’s feet should dangle from a banana-hued lounge chair. — Marcus Harrison Green, The Seattle Times, "Grandparents raising grandkids say they need more help from Washington state," 28 Dec. 2018 This brand of feelings-first politics drives ideologues and technocrats bananas, but corresponds to how most people think about politics and political leadership — in terms of group identity and affiliation. — Matthew Yglesias, Vox, "Joe Biden is leading the 2020 polls. Here’s what he thinks about policy.," 18 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'banana.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about banana

Dictionary Entries near banana

Statistics for banana

Last Updated

15 Jun 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for banana

The first known use of banana was in 1597

See more words from the same year

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for banana

banana

noun

English Language Learners Definition of banana

: a long curved fruit with a thick peel that is yellow when it is ripe

See the full definition for banana in the English Language Learners Dictionary

banana

noun

ba·nana | \ bə-ˈna-nə

Kids Definition of banana

: a fruit that is shaped somewhat like a finger, is usually yellow when ripe, and grows in bunches on a large treelike tropical plant with very large leaves