Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌳 A fruit tree 🥒 A sour fruit
sour gourd

sour gourd

9.9
A tree that has sour fruit often used in cooking
  • noun
  • Australian
translation icon : fruto de la calabaza agria
  • The fruit of the sour gourd is often used in traditional Australian recipes.

Examples

  • Many birds are attracted to the sour gourd tree because of its acidic fruit.

  • Have you ever tasted a sour gourd?

  • Botanists studied the sour gourd to better understand its adaptation to the Australian climate.

  • The sour gourd tree grows well in tropical climates.

  • The fruit of the sour gourd has a unique flavor that enhances many savory dishes.

  • In the bush, we found a sour gourd tree full of ripe, tangy fruits.

  • Many people enjoy making preserves from the tart fruit of the sour gourd.

Synonyms

cream-of-tartar tree
vssour gourd
  • Australian
9.9

A tree from northern Australia that has sour, small round fruit

is the same but stresses the fruit's agreeable sour taste
Adansonia gregorii
vssour gourd
  • Specialized
9.9

A large Australian tree with a thick bottle-shaped trunk and sour fruit

focuses on the pleasant sour fruit rather than trunk shape

Surface Forms

sour gourd singular
sour gourds plural

Morphology

sour + gourd

The noun phrase is compositionally built from 'sour' (acid-tasting) + 'gourd' (a cucurbit/plant), so its meaning — a gourd (or tree/fruit resembling a gourd) that is sour — can be directly inferred. This follows the common adjective+noun pattern and is not idiomatic or metaphorical, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the two words.

Etymology

Sour gourd was the name early settlers used for a tree whose fruit looked like a gourd but tasted sour. So the name points to the tree and its 'pleasantly sour' fruit.