tangerine
noun
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When tangerine was first used in the mid-19th century it was an adjective we'd borrowed from French to describe people or things from or relating to the Moroccan city of Tangier. (The French name for "Tangier" is Tanger.) Within about a hundred years the noun tangerine was being used to refer to the fruit we now know by that name. Although tangerines were at one time thought to be native to Morocco, they are now thought to be indigenous to southeast Asia. As our definition explains, tangerines are technically a kind of mandarin orange-and mandarin is another word we got from the French. The French mandarine is most likely originally from the Portuguese word mandarim, which etymologists believe is probably from the color of a Chinese mandarin's robes.
Examples of tangerine in a Sentence
Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 June 2025
The cocktails center around seasonal ingredients—yuzu and neroli, tangerine and gentian—and owners Monica Berg and Alex Kratena find ingenious ways to highlight and amplify their simplicity of flavor.
—Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 6 June 2025
Honey hued juice with semi-complex aromas of green apples and tangerines.
—Tom Mullen, Forbes.com, 1 June 2025
Taylor by Taylor Swift (magnolia and tangerine); Taylor by Taylor Swift: Made of Starlight (apricot); and Incredible Things (Grapefruit).
—Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 21 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for tangerine
Cite this Entry
“Tangerine.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tangerine. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.
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tangerine
noun
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