strawberry

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun sweet fleshy red fruit
  2. noun any of various low perennial herbs with many runners and bearing white flowers followed by edible fruits having many small achenes scattered on the surface of an enlarged red pulpy berry
  3. noun a soft red birthmark

Etymology

From Middle English strawberie, strawbery, from Old English strēawberġe, corresponding to straw + berry. Of various theories advanced to explain the name, the two most plausible are: # from the fact that wild strawberries grow on straw-like runners (compare Norwegian stråbær, denoting cranberries, which grow in a similar way); # from the practice, still common in parts of Europe, of gathering strawberries by stringing them on a straw or stalk.

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