banana    NOUN

bə-'na-nə   especially British -'nä-

1: an elongated usually tapering tropical fruit with soft pulpy flesh enclosed in a soft usually yellow rind
     | a bunch of bananas
     | slipped on a banana peel

2: any of several widely cultivated perennial often treelike herbs (genus Musa of the family Musaceae, the banana family) bearing bananas in compact pendent bunches

Illustration of banana (definition 2)

Examples of banana in a sentence:
Recent Examples on the Web

Climate change is also helping diseases that threaten banana trees, in particular the TR4 fungus, spread more easily.
—Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 25 Mar. 2024

Try adding potassium to your diet by eating a banana for a snack.
—Cynthia Sass, MPH, Health, 24 Mar. 2024

Jones still makes his father’s secret sauce, and Marci makes some of her own recipes for dessert, including chocolate cakes made with hot coffee and cinnamon, fresh banana pudding, peach cobbler and buttermilk pie.
—Jenny Rudolph, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘banana.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.

Word History

Etymology
Spanish or Portuguese; Spanish, from Portuguese, of African origin; akin to Wolof banaana

First Known Use
1597, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing banana
banana bread
banana clip
banana oil
banana pepper
banana republic
banana seat
banana split
second banana
slip on a banana skin/peel
top banana

—excerpted from Mirriam-Webster’s online dictionary
(mirriam-webster.com)