🥭 A tropical fruit 🌳 A tropical tree

Spanish lime

7.9

A small green fruit with thin skin and sweet juicy pulp you eat like a grape

noun

: mamoncillo

The sweet pulp of the Spanish lime is delicious and refreshing.

Examples

Vendors were selling bags of fresh Spanish limes on the beach.
I had never tasted a Spanish lime until my trip to Puerto Rico.
I love eating Spanish lime during the summer.
Have you tried Spanish limes before?
The sweet pulp of the Spanish lime is delicious and refreshing.
I had never tasted a Spanish lime until my trip to Puerto Rico.
Vendors were selling bags of fresh Spanish limes on the beach.

Synonyms

genip

vsSpanish lime

9.9

A small round tropical fruit with green skin and sweet, juicy flesh

has identical meaning but uses a different common name

Surface Forms

Spanish lime singular

Spanish limes plural

Morphology

Spanish + lime

Although the parts 'Spanish' and 'lime' suggest a variety or origin of the familiar citrus fruit, the term denotes a specific tropical species (Melicoccus bijugatus) that is not a true citrus lime and is not transparently linked to Spain. The overall meaning is a lexicalized plant/fruit name whose sense cannot be reliably derived from the constituents, so learners who know the words would likely infer the wrong thing.

Etymology

Spanish lime may come from English speakers who found the fruit on islands where people spoke Spanish and thought it looked like a tiny lime. You peel the thin green skin and eat the sweet, juicy pulp like a grape, so the name now means 'a small green tropical fruit eaten like a grape'.