banana tree
- noun
- /bəˈnænə tri/
- The banana tree provided shade for the children playing in the backyard.
The cool bananas grew, hung heavily on the great banana tree which pierces clouds and bends on half the world.
- The cool bananas grew, hung heavily on the great banana tree which pierces clouds and bends on half the world.
- Beneath the happy banana tree, out on the back balcony, my father's gold earrings are welded into my ears.
Examples
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In the tropical garden, clusters of ripe bananas hung from the banana tree's large leaves.
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I climb back into the van, and we jostle on through paddies and rubber plantations, green groves of bamboo and banana trees.
Fiction book (2000) -
I was very excited about the banana trees.
Fiction book (1997) -
I could see a long road of red dirt and banana trees.
Fiction book (1997) -
In the middle, there was a courtyard with banana trees.
Fiction book (1997) -
Her plump and healthy banana trees are growing day by day.
Academic text (1998) -
Outside, the trade winds kept the morning heat down and the banana trees rustling like rain.
Fiction book (2002) -
Open-air homes among banana trees, typical of southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique, offer little protection from lions.
Academic text (2009) -
Where the river was, emerald pastures swelled, with cows and cameloids feeding beneath palms heavy with dates and lime green banana trees.
Fiction book (1995) -
She carefully picked the bananas from the banana tree, ensuring not to damage any of the surrounding branches.
Synonyms
A tall tropical plant with large leaves that grows clusters of fruit
A common banana variety grown and sold worldwide
A plant that grows the bananas people eat
A banana plant that grows in warm places and produces starchy fruits you can cook
A low-growing Asian banana plant grown for clusters of edible yellow fruit
A small banana tree that grows near the ground and makes sweet yellow fruit
A group of tropical plants that includes bananas and plantains
A banana plant from the Philippines with strong leaf stalks used to make rope and paper
A large evergreen plant with big leaves whose fruit is not eaten but whose young flower shoots people eat
A large evergreen plant like a banana with very large leaves often grown in gardens
A banana plant that can live in cool weather and is grown for its tropical leaves rather than its fruit
A garden plant with large tropical leaves that survives cool winters
How Tall
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a tree/plant that bears bananas' is directly and compositionally derived from 'banana' (the fruit/plant) + 'tree' (a tall perennial plant). This noun-noun combination follows a transparent modifier-head pattern common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Banana tree comes from the simple image of a tall plant with big leaves and hanging fruit that looks like a tree, so people joined banana and tree to name it. So today banana tree means the 'plant that gives bananas'.