Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
coffee berry

coffee berry

3.1
A fruit on a coffee tree that contains the seeds used to make coffee
  • noun
  • /ˈkɔːfi ˈbɛri/
: cereza de café
  • After harvesting, the farmers transported the coffee berries to the processing facility to extract the seeds.

So I'm going to to enjoy the rest of these coffee berries.

Examples

  • For those unfamiliar, Kopi Luwak is made from coffee berries eaten.

    Blog text (1)

  • It's got so many coffee berries on this tree.

  • It also shells coffee berries.

    Academic text (2011)

  • As part of the experiment, researchers collected coffee berries that had been visited by the female flies to determine whether the hidden eggs were infertile.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The sheller is adjustable and can shell coffee berries, shea nuts, and jatropha seeds.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The huiler replaced the wasteful and time-consuming mortar and pestle that were used to clean coffee berries.

    Academic text (2004)

  • PHOTO (COLOR): A female medfly pumps eggs through her ovipositor into the soft outer layers of a ripe coffee berry. (K7022-6)

    Academic text (1996)

  • The workers carefully picked the ripe coffee berries from the tree to prepare them for roasting.

  • Many birds are attracted to the sweet flavor of coffee berries, often feasting on them before the harvest.

Surface Forms

coffee berry singular
coffee berries plural

Morphology

coffee + berry

The compound 'coffee berry' is a straightforward noun+noun composition: a 'berry' associated with 'coffee', so a learner who knows 'coffee' and 'berry' can infer it denotes the fruit of the coffee plant that contains the seed. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and requires no idiomatic or metaphorical knowledge.

Etymology

Coffee berry names the small red berry that grows on the coffee tree. Inside each berry is the 'seed' people call a 'coffee bean', so coffee berry means the fruit that holds the seed used to make coffee.