cacao tree
1
3.5
- noun
- /kəˈkeɪ.oʊ ˌtriː/
:
cacaotero
- The cacao tree produces pods filled with seeds that are harvested to make chocolate.
- cacao tree grows
The giant ferns and cacao trees and papaya and it's rioting vegetation.
- The giant ferns and cacao trees and papaya and it's rioting vegetation.
Examples
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This drink, made from the seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), was the precursor to what we now know as chocolate.
Academic text (2010) -
The native cacao tree also depends on minuscule flies, attracted by the overripe pods that fall to the ground and rot around its base.
Academic text (2003) -
The cacao tree, the source of chocolate, is "here because people planted it and kept the other plants out," he says.
Academic text (2008) -
Cacao trees are so abundant here that little attention is paid to ownership.
Academic text (2008) -
A cluster of stunted cacao trees grew along the stream.
Blog text (18) -
Our country produces very high-quality chocolate from the cacao trees.
Blog text (4) -
Cacao trees are simply cultivated beneath the remaining shade trees.
Academic text (2003) -
The cacao tree grows naturally in the shaded, humid understory of lowland tropical forest, reaching heights of some twenty feet.
Academic text (2003) -
A fruiting cacao tree, Belize: Cultivated trees are pruned so that the pods are at a convenient height for harvesting.
Academic text (2003) -
In the rainforest, I saw a cacao tree with large, colorful pods hanging from its branches.
Synonyms
10
4.6
A tropical tree that produces seeds used to make chocolate
A tropical tree whose seeds, called cacao beans, people use to make chocolate and cocoa
A tropical tree that produces cocoa beans used to make chocolate
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining 'cacao' (the plant that yields seeds for cocoa products) with 'tree' (a perennial plant), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to the tree that produces cacao beans. This noun–noun composition follows ordinary, cross-linguistically common compounding patterns and therefore is immediately comprehensible from its parts.
Etymology
The name cacao tree is a simple picture of a tree that grows cacao pods full of beans used to make chocolate. Because people use those beans to make cocoa and chocolate, the name means a tree grown for 'cacao' or 'chocolate beans'.