plantain
Syllables: plan·tain/ˈplæn.tɪn/US/ˈplæn.tɪn/
plantain noun: any plant of the genus Plantago, with a rosette of sessile leaves about 10 cm (4") long with a narrow part instead of a petiole, and with a spike inflorescence with the flower spacing varying widely among the species. See also psyllium.
Noun (1)
plantain (plural plantains)
- Any plant of the genus Plantago, with a rosette of sessile leaves about 10 cm (4") long with a narrow part instead of a petiole, and with a spike inflorescence with the flower spacing varying widely among the species. See also psyllium.
- The roots of Plantain and Pellitory of Spain beaten to powder and put into hollow teeth, takes away the pains of them.1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 225
- The paths too are overgrown, but easily identified by the presence on them of round-leaved plantains.2003, Ernst Jünger, translated by Michael Hofmann, Storm of Steel, Penguin, published 2004, page 41
Noun (2)
plantain (plural plantains)
- A plant in the genus Musa, the genus that includes banana, but with lower sugar content than banana.
- The fruit of the plant, usually cooked before eating and used like potatoes.
- We were sitting at the tables in the port, eating an unhurried breakfast of delicious mojarra fish from the swamp and slices of fried green plantain, when my mother resumed the offensive in her personal war.2002, Edith Grossman, transl., chapter 1, in Living to Tell the Tale, translation of Vivir para contarla by Gabriel García Márquez
- She uses broccoli rabe instead of aka takana (spicy mustard greens), shops in the Caribbean markets of her Washington Heights neighborhood for batatas rather than Japanese satsumaimo (yellow sweet potatoes), and has learned to love the local mofongo, the Dominican version of mashed plantains with...2007 December 26, Julia Moskin, “A Celebration of the New Year Ushers in a Bit of Japan”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
plantain meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
plantain in Hindi
- plantain
- केला kelā
plantain in Tamil
- நேந்திரம் பழம், வாழை மரம், வாழைப்பழம்
plantain in Marathi
- fruit
- राजेळी केळ rājeḷī keḷ
plantain in Urdu
- plantain
- کیلا kelā
More languagesFewer languages
- plantain in Bengali
- কেলা kela
- plantain in Malayalam
- വാഴ, വാഴയ്ക്ക, കദളീഫലം
- plantain in Kannada
- ಬಾಳೆಕಾಯಿ bāḷekāyi
- plantain in Sanskrit
- कदल kadala
- plantain in Assamese
- কাঁচকল kãsokol
- plantain in Arabic
- لِسَان الْحَمَل lisān al-ḥamal, لِسَان الْخَرُوف lisān al-ḵarūf, ذَنَب الْفَأْر ḏanab al-faʔr
- plantain in Thai
- กล้าย glâai
- plantain in Myanmar
- ငှက်ပျော hngakpyau:
Examples of plantain in a sentence
- One popular Nigerian dish is fried plantain, which is called “dodo.”
- The plantain lorry caught up with them in a blind curve.
- An hour later we were stuffed with smoked fish, grilled maize-on-the-cob, barbecued beef, fried plantains, and Fanta.
Synonyms of plantain
Forms of plantain
| plural | plantains |
|---|
Origin of plantain
Inherited from Middle English planteyne, planteyn, from Anglo-Norman plainteine et al., Old French plaintain, from Latin plantāgō, from planta (“sole of the foot”), a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat; to spread”), because of the broad, flat shape of the plantain leaves.
From Spanish plantano (obsolete variant of plátano), from Latin platanus, from Ancient Greek πλάτανος (plátanos).
Words formed from plantain
- African plantain
- American plantain
- Asian plantain
- blackseed plantain
- blond plantain
- bracted plantain
- broadleaf plantain
- buck's horn plantain
- buckhorn plantain
- buckshorn plantain
- California plantain
- common plantain
- depressed plantain
- doronic plantain
- dwarf plantain
- English plantain
- evergreen plantain
- greater plantain
- hare's foot plantain
- hartshorn plantain
- heart-leaf plantain
- Heller's plantain
- hoary plantain
- Indian plantain
- mud plantain
- narrowleaf plantain
- narrow-leaved plantain
- pale plantain
- plantain goldenweed
- plantain-leaf leopard's-bane
- plantain lily
- plantain moth
- plantain signal grass
- plantain water
- poor Robin's plantain
- rattlesnake plantain
- redseed plantain
- ribwort plantain
- Robin's plantain
- Rugel's plantain
- sand plantain
- sea plantain
- seaside plantain
- Virginia plantain
- water plantain
- woolly plantain
- Wright's plantain
- banana plantain
- bastard plantain
- bocadillo plantain
- cooking plantain
- French plantain
- plantain cutter
- plantain eater
- plantain-eater
- plantain squirrel
- plantain tree
- true plantain
- wild plantain
Phrases with plantain
Questions about plantain
- What does plantain mean?
- Plantain means any plant of the genus Plantago, with a rosette of sessile leaves about 10 cm (4") long with a narrow part instead of a petiole, and with a spike inflorescence with the flower spacing varying widely among the species. See also psyllium.
- What is plantain in Hindi?
- Plantain in Hindi is केला (kelā). See Plantain meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is plantain?
- Plantain is a noun.
- How do you pronounce plantain?
- Plantain is pronounced /ˈplæn.tɪn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of plantain?
- The plural of plantain is plantains.
Words near plantain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: plantain (page history and authors); केला (Hindi) (page history and authors); plantain (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); کیلا (Urdu) (page history and authors); কেলা (Bengali) (page history and authors); plantain (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-plantain.wav.
Cite this entry: “plantain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plantain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.