Word.ws English Dictionary

sloe

/ˈsləʊ/US/ˈsloʊ/

sloe noun: the small, astringent, wild fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).

sloe: the small, astringent, wild fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)
Image: Martin Olsson (mnemo on en/sv wikipedia and commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sloe (plural sloes)

  1. The small, astringent, wild fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).
    • There is also a dryness in the mouth from the increased action of the absorbent vessels, when a sloe or a crab-apple are masticated...1796, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, or, the Laws of Organic Life, part II.I.I.III
    • The dew-drops fell like water, leaf after leaf dropped from the trees, the sloe-thorn alone still bore fruit, but the sloes were sour, and set the teeth on edge. Oh, how dark and weary the whole world appeared!1872, The Snow Queen by H. C. Andersen, translation by Paull
  2. The tree Prunus spinosa.
  3. Any of various other plants of the genus Prunus, as a shrub or small tree, Prunus alleghaniensis, bearing dark-purple fruit.

sloe meaning in Persian

sloe in Persian

fruit of Prunus spinosa
گوجه وحشی gowje vahši, آلوچه âluče, آلوچه جنگلی âluče jangali

Forms of sloe

pluralsloes

Origin of sloe

From Middle English slo, sla, sloo, from Old English slā, slāh, from Proto-West Germanic *slaihā, from Proto-Germanic *slaihǭ, *slaihwō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₃y- (“bluish”). Doublet of Sliwa.

Words formed from sloe

Phrases with sloe

Words that rhyme with sloe

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sloe

What does sloe mean?
Sloe means the small, astringent, wild fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).
What is sloe in Persian?
Sloe in Persian is گوجه وحشی (gowje vahši), آلوچه (âluče), آلوچه جنگلی (âluče jangali). See Sloe meaning in Persian.
What part of speech is sloe?
Sloe is a noun.
How do you pronounce sloe?
Sloe is pronounced /ˈsləʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of sloe?
The plural of sloe is sloes.

Words near sloe in the dictionary

  1. SLOCs
  2. Slocum
  3. Slocumb
  4. Slocumbs
  5. Slocums
  6. sloe
  7. sloe bush
  8. sloe bushes
  9. sloe gin
  10. sloe gins
  11. sloe plum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sloe (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-sloe.wav.

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