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Glite Dictionary
tree tomato

tree tomato

7.8
Small tree from South America that grows egg-shaped reddish fruit you can eat
  • noun
  • Australian
translation icon : tomate de árbol
  • The tree tomato is a unique fruit that tastes similar to a regular tomato.

Examples

  • Has anyone out there grown the tree tomato?

    Blog text (12)

  • I love tomatoes and was interested in the tree tomatoes.

    Blog text (12)

  • I had no luck with the tree tomatoes, but my favorites are Early Girl and Early Girl Cherry.

    Blog text (12)

  • She discovered that the tree tomato plant thrived in her garden's climate.

  • Many people enjoy the sweet flavor of tree tomatoes in salads and salsas.

Synonyms

tamarillo
vstree tomato
9.9

A small egg-shaped fruit with reddish-brown skin and a sweet tangy taste or the small tree that grows it

has the same meaning but is the common English name

Surface Forms

tree tomato singular
tree tomatoes plural

Morphology

tree + tomato

The compound is directly compositional: combining 'tree' and 'tomato' denotes a tomato-like fruit associated with a tree, so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a tomato that grows on a tree or a tree-producing tomato. This type of noun-noun naming is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'tomate de árbol') and therefore readily understandable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Tree tomato gets its name from a simple image: the fruit looks like a small tomato but it grows on a bush or small tree, so people started calling it a tree tomato. That's why the name now means the plant and the fruit you can eat.