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Glite Dictionary
🌳 A tropical tree 🥜 A caffeinated seed
kola nut

kola nut

7.1
A bitter brown seed from a West African tree used to help people feel more awake and flavor cola
  • noun
  • /ˈkoʊlə nʌt/
translation icon : nuez de kola
  • The flavor of the soda comes from the extract of the kola nut, which contains caffeine.

Examples

  • The traditional drink made from the kola nut gives you an energetic boost.

  • The kola nut (Cola acuminata)

    Academic text (1990)

  • In some cultures, people chew the kola nut to stay awake during long journeys.

Synonyms

cola nut
vskola nut
  • Specialized
6.7

A bitter brown seed from a West African tree that contains caffeine and is used to flavor drinks

shares identical meaning but differs only in name form

Surface Forms

kola nut singular
kola nuts plural

Morphology

kola + nut

This is a straightforward compound in which the modifier 'kola' specifies the type of 'nut', so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it is the seed of the kola tree. The meaning is concrete and compositional (a nut from a kola tree) rather than idiomatic, and such noun–noun naming patterns are cross-linguistically common, making it transparently interpretable.

Etymology

Kola nut is the bitter brown seed of a West African tree (the kola) that people chewed to feel more awake and to greet visitors. Its caffeine and strong flavor were used in early recipes for 'cola' drinks, so the name now means both the seed and the flavor used in beverages.