Word.ws English Dictionary

peppercorn

Syllables: pep·per·corn/ˈpɛpəkɔːn/US/ˈpɛpɚkɔɹn/

peppercorn noun: the seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed.

peppercorn: the seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed
Image: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

peppercorn (plural peppercorns)

  1. The seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed.
  2. A small, insignificant quantity; a whit or jot.
    • A 75 ¢ book must look 40 ¢ better to the distributor and wholesaler, because if one peppercorn of doubt that people will pay 75 ¢ for the book gets thrown into the distribution mill, the books may never leave their cartons […]1961, Book Production Magazine, volumes 73-74, page 47
    1. (attributive) A nominal consideration used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract.
      • peppercorn rent

Proper noun capitalized: Peppercorn

Peppercorn

  1. A surname.

peppercorn meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit and Assamese

peppercorn in Hindi

the seeds of the plant Piper nigrum
गोलमिर्च golmirc

peppercorn in Bengali

গোল মরিচ

peppercorn in Sanskrit

peppercorn
मरिच marica, पिप्पलि pippali

peppercorn in Assamese

the seeds of the plant Piper nigrum
গোল মৰিচ gül moris
More languagesFewer languages
peppercorn in Tagalog
paminta

Forms of peppercorn

pluralpeppercorns

Origin of peppercorn

Inherited from Middle English peper corn, peper-corn, pepercorn, from Old English piporcorn (“peppercorn”), corresponding to pepper + corn. Compare Dutch peperkorrel (“peppercorn”), German Pfefferkorn (“peppercorn”), Danish peberkorn (“peppercorn”), Swedish pepparkorn (“peppercorn”), Icelandic piparkorn (“peppercorn”).

Words formed from peppercorn

Phrases with peppercorn

Words that rhyme with peppercorn

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about peppercorn

What does peppercorn mean?
Peppercorn means the seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed.
What is peppercorn in Hindi?
Peppercorn in Hindi is गोलमिर्च (golmirc). See Peppercorn meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is peppercorn?
Peppercorn can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce peppercorn?
Peppercorn is pronounced /ˈpɛpəkɔːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of peppercorn?
The plural of peppercorn is peppercorns.

Words near peppercorn in the dictionary

  1. pepperbox
  2. pepperboxes
  3. pepperbrand
  4. pepperbush
  5. pepperbushes
  6. peppercorn
  7. peppercorn hair
  8. peppercorn hairs
  9. peppercorn rent
  10. peppercorn rents
  11. peppercorns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: peppercorn (page history and authors); Peppercorn (page history and authors); peppercorn (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पिप्पलि (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-peppercorn.wav.

Cite this entry: “peppercorn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/peppercorn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.