tomato

/təˈmɑː.təʊ//təˈmeɪ.toʊ/

tomato noun: a widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit.

Image: Luigi Chiesa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

tomato (countable and uncountable, plural tomatoes)

A widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit.
The savory fruit of this plant, most often red when ripe, treated as a vegetable in horticulture and cooking.
- He was chopping a tomato to put in the salad.
- He was eating a tomato when his boss called him.
Synonyms:

golden apple, love apple, wolf's peach
A shade of red, the colour typical of a ripe tomato.
(slang) An attractive woman.
- Deborah Harry, the New Wave goddess, is finally admitting -- after all the peroxide and posturing of the 1970's and 80's -- that she's really just a tomato (her word) from Paterson […].1999 April 4, Frank Decaro, “No Longer the Punch-Line State”, in The New York Times, section 9, page 1
- When she left the room, I asked Robert, “Who's the tomato?” “Marisa. She's from Mexico.” He had a telltale smile on his face.2008, Denny Durbin, Lazy Enchiladas: Redefining Success: Tasty Lessons on Love, Life, & Relationships, Bodega Publishing, →ISBN, page 13
(slang) A stupid act or person.

Adjective

tomato (comparative more tomato, superlative most tomato)

Of a shade of red, the colour of a ripe tomato.
- Her face is on the cover: the Anne Estelle Rice portrait – or the black-eyed Japanese-bobbed head-and-shoulders bit of it – and the square-yoked dress is tomato, or pomegranate, but never persimmon. If it stayed too long in the sun and faded, well yes, maybe then…1990, Beverley Farmer, “December”, in A Body of Water, Sydney, N.S.W.: Giramondo Publishing, published 2020, →ISBN
- And she’d slathered a heavy layer of foundation over the raw skin of her face with the end result being a complexion that was more tomato than orange.2011, Jackie Braun, “Most Focused”, in Mr. Right There All Along (Harlequin Romance, #4258; The Fun Factor), Toronto, Ont.: Harlequin, →ISBN, page 220

Verb

tomato (third-person singular simple present tomatos, present participle tomatoing, simple past and past participle tomatoed)

(rare, transitive) To pelt with tomatoes.
(rare, transitive) To add tomatoes to (a dish).

tomato meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tomato in Hindi

tomato plant: टमाटर ṭamāṭar, विलायती vilāyatī
fruit: टमाटर ṭamāṭar, विलायती vilāyatī

tomato in Tamil

tomato plant: தக்காளி takkāḷi
fruit: தக்காளி takkāḷi

tomato in Marathi

tomato plant: टोमॅटो ṭomĕṭo
fruit: टोमॅटो ṭomĕṭo

tomato in Urdu

tomato plant: ٹَماٹَر ṭamāṭar, وِلایَتی بَین٘گَن vilāyatī baiṅgan
fruit: ٹَماٹَر ṭamāṭar, وِلایَتی بَین٘گَن vilāyatī baiṅgan, بادَنْجانِ فَرَن٘گی bādanjān-i faraṅgī

More languagesFewer languages

tomato in Bengali: বিলাতী বেগুন, টমেটো ṭomeṭō
tomato in Telugu: టమోటా ṭamōṭā, రామ ములక్కాయ rāma mulakkāya, తక్కాళీ takkāḷī, మొలక్కాయ molakkāya
tomato in Malayalam: തക്കാളി takkāḷi
tomato in Kannada: ಟೊಮಾಟೋ ṭomāṭō
tomato in Punjabi: ਟਮਾਟਰ ṭamāṭar, ਟਮਾਟਾ ṭamāṭā
tomato in Gujarati: ટામેટું ṭāmeṭũ, ટમેટું ṭameṭũ
tomato in Odia: ଟମାଟୋ ṭamāṭo
tomato in Sanskrit: रक्तफल raktaphala
tomato in Sinhala: තක්කාලි takkāli
tomato in Assamese: বিলাহী bilahi
tomato in Nepali: टमाटर ṭamāṭar
tomato in Pashto: رومي rūmi, بانجان bānjān, باتينګړ bātingaṛ, بادنجان bādanjān
tomato in Tagalog: kamatis, butinggan
tomato in Arabic: طَمَاطِم ṭamāṭim, بَنَدُورَة banadūra, بَنْدُورَة bandūra
tomato in Malay: rangam, tomato, terung masam, tomat
tomato in Indonesian: tomat
tomato in Thai: มะเขือเทศ má-kʉ̌ʉa-têet
tomato in Vietnamese: cà chua
tomato in Myanmar: ခရမ်းချင်သီး hka.ram:hkyangsi:, ခရမ်းချဉ် hka.ram:hkyany, မြေပုံသီး mrepumsi:
Kashmiri: رُوانٛگُن ruvāngun, ٹَماٹَر ṭamāṭar

Examples of tomato in a sentence

In common parlance tomatoes are vegetables, as the Supreme Court observed long ago [see Nix v.1990, JSG Trading Corp. v. Tray-Wrap, Inc., 917 F.2d 75 (2d Cir. 1990)
“Who's the tomato?” a cop said as Evie walked past.2020, Libba Bray, The King of Crows, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, →ISBN:
When did this happen last, a tomato he's hardly met going to so much trouble?2025, Thomas Pynchon, Shadow Ticket, Jonathan Cape, page 19:

All 40 example sentences with tomato

Synonyms of tomato

Forms of tomato

Noun
plural	tomatoes
alternative pronunciation-spelling	tomater
alternative form (obsolete)	tomatoe
alternative Appalachia Southern US (informal)	'mater
Adjective
comparative	more tomato
superlative	most tomato
Verb
third-person singular present	tomatos
present participle	tomatoing
past participle	tomatoed
past	tomatoed

Plural of tomato: tomatoes

Origin of tomato

Variant of earlier tomate, from Spanish tomate, from Classical Nahuatl tomatl, from Proto-Nahuan *toma-tl. Compare tomatillo.

Words formed from tomato

Phrases with tomato

21 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with tomato

Questions about tomato

What does tomato mean?: Tomato means a widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit.
What is tomato in Hindi?: Tomato in Hindi is टमाटर (ṭamāṭar), विलायती (vilāyatī). See Tomato meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tomato in a sentence?: In common parlance tomatoes are vegetables, as the Supreme Court observed long ago [see Nix v.
What part of speech is tomato?: Tomato can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce tomato?: Tomato is pronounced /təˈmɑː.təʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of tomato?: The plural of tomato is tomatoes.

Words near tomato in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tomato (page history and authors); रक्तफल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); टमाटर (Nepali) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-tomato.ogg, En-au-tomato.ogg, en-us-tomato.ogg.

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