Word.ws English Dictionary

plum

/plʌm/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/plʊm/

plum noun: an edible, fleshy stone fruit of species Prunus domestica (European plum) and Prunus americana American plum, often of a dark red or purple colour.

Noun

plum (plural plums)

  1. An edible, fleshy stone fruit of species Prunus domestica (European plum) and Prunus americana American plum, often of a dark red or purple colour.
    Synonyms:
    ume
  2. A stone-fruit tree which bears this fruit, Prunus domestica.
  3. Prunus cerasifera (cherry plum or myrobalan).
  4. Prunus salicina (Chinese plum or Japanese plum).
  5. Prunus spinosa (sloe).
  6. Prunus ursina (bear's plum).
  7. Prunus americana (American plum).
  8. Prunus angustifolia (Chickasaw plum or sand plum).
  9. Prunus hortulana (hortulan plum).
  10. Prunus nigra (Canadian plum or black plum).
  11. Prunus rivularis (creek plum or hog plum).
  12. Prunus subcordata (Klamath plum or Oregon plum).
Show 8 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Prunus sect. Armeniaca (better known as apricots)
  2. Prunus mume, an Asian fruit more closely related to the apricot than the plum, usually consumed pickled, dried, or as a juice or wine; ume.
  3. (archaic) A dried grape or raisin, as used in a pudding or cake.
    • “Bright boy! here’s a plum for you,” and Polly threw a plump raisin into his mouth.1870, Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl
    • Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, eating a Christmas pie; he put in his thumb, and he took out a plum, and said, “What a good boy am I!”1877, Mother Gooose’s Nursery Rhymes
  4. (archaic) One hundred thousand pounds; (generally) a fortune.
    • He […] acquired a plentiful fortune, tho', to his infinite regret, he died before it amounted to a Plum […].1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
  5. A desirable or choice thing of its kind; a prize selection; a choice appointment, assignment etc.
    • The mayor rewarded his cronies with cushy plums, requiring little work for handsome pay.
    • Such chances as this do not fall to a man's lot twice; but Edmond Werdet relates a story very similar indeed, and where also the "plums" fell into the lap of a London dealer.1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 52
  6. A dark bluish-red color, the color of some plums.
    Synonyms:
    plum-color
  7. (plural-normally, slang, vulgar) A testicle.
  8. (UK, derogatory) A fool, an idiot.

Adjective (1)

plum (comparative more plum, superlative most plum)

  1. (comparable) Of a dark bluish-red colour.
    Synonyms:
    plum-colored
  2. (not comparable) Choice; especially lavish or preferred.
    • She landed a plum position as an executive for the firm.
    • It is obviously a "plum" job, one distinction being that its motormen are granted an allowance of about 6s. [six shillings] towards the cost of Wagons-Lits food in the crew quarters of the train, [...]. Additionally, by the way, each man is allowed a quarter of a bottle of wine "on the house" per...1960 March, G. Freeman Allen, “Europe's most luxurious express - the "Settebello"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 146

Adjective (2)

plum (comparative more plum, superlative most plum)

  1. Plumb.

Adverb

plum (not comparable)

  1. Completely; utterly.
    • You're going to think I'm plum crazy for this, but I want to adopt all seven kittens.

Verb

plum (third-person singular simple present plums, present participle plumming, simple past and past participle plummed)

  1. (transitive) To plumb.

Proper noun capitalized: Plum

Plum (countable and uncountable, plural Plums)

  1. A surname.
  2. A borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, named after Plum Creek (Allegheny River tributary).
  3. A township in Venango County, Pennsylvania.
  4. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, Texas, United States.
  5. A village in Le Mont-Dore commune, New Caledonia.

plum meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

plum in Hindi

fruit of Prunus domestica
आलूचा ālūcā, आलूबुखारा ālūbukhārā, बेर ber

plum in Tamil

பிளம், ஆள்பக்கோடாப்பழம், கொத்துப்பேரி

plum in Marathi

प्लम, प्लॅम, प्लुम

plum in Urdu

fruit of Prunus domestica
بیر ber
More languagesFewer languages
plum in Bengali
কুল, ফলবিশেষ
plum in Telugu
ప్లం, ప్లమ్
plum in Malayalam
പ്ലം plaṁ, ആലുചാ ālucā
plum in Kannada
ತೂಗುಗುಂಡು
plum in Punjabi
ਆਲੂਬੁਖ਼ਾਰਾ ālūbuxārā, ਅਲੂਚਾ alūcā
plum in Gujarati
આલૂબુખારા ālūbukhārā
plum in Odia
ପ୍ଲମ୍, ପ୍ଲାମ୍, ପ୍ଲମ
plum in Assamese
বগৰী bogori
plum in Nepali
प्लम, प्लाम, प्लुम
plum in Pashto
الو alu, الوچه
plum in Tagalog
sirwelas
plum in Arabic
بَرْقُوق barqūq
plum in Persian
آلو âlu
plum in Thai
พลัม plam, พรุน prun
plum in Vietnamese
mận, quả mận, trái mận, màu mận
plum in Myanmar
ဇီးသီ ji:si

Examples of plum in a sentence

  • He spent all day cosying up to the new boss, hoping for a plum assignment.
  • For this plum cake, two eggs should suffice.
  • A prune is a shrivelled plum.

All 40 example sentences with plum

Synonyms of plum

All synonyms of plum

Forms of plum

Noun
pluralplums
alternative form (obsolete)plumb
Adjective
comparativemore plum
superlativemost plum
Verb
third-person singular presentplums
present participleplumming
past participleplummed
pastplummed
Proper noun
pluralPlums

Plural of plum: plums

Origin of plum

From Middle English plomme, ploume, from Old English plūme, from Proto-West Germanic *plūmā, borrowed from Latin prūnum. Doublet of prune.

Phonetically-based spelling of plumb.

Words formed from plum

Phrases with plum

142 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with plum

42 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about plum

What does plum mean?
Plum means an edible, fleshy stone fruit of species Prunus domestica (European plum) and Prunus americana American plum, often of a dark red or purple colour.
What is plum in Hindi?
Plum in Hindi is आलूचा (ālūcā), आलूबुखारा (ālūbukhārā), बेर (ber). See Plum meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is plum?
Plum can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a verb.
How do you pronounce plum?
Plum is pronounced /plʌm/.
What is the plural of plum?
The plural of plum is plums.

Words near plum in the dictionary

  1. plugs up
  2. pluguglies
  3. plugugly
  4. plugworthy
  5. pluh
  6. plum
  7. plum aralia
  8. plum bird
  9. plum birds
  10. plum bladder
  11. plum bladders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plum (page history and authors); Plum (page history and authors); plum (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); plum (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); plum (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); plum (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); plum (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); આલૂબુખારા (Gujarati) (page history and authors); plum (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); বগৰী (Assamese) (page history and authors); plum (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); الو (Pashto) (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: en-us-plum.ogg.

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