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Glite Dictionary
walnut family

walnut family

5.4
A group of trees that includes walnuts, pecans, and hickories and makes edible nuts
  • noun
  • /ˈwɔːlnət ˈfæmɪli/
  • Specialized
translation icon : familia de los nogales
  • Many members of the walnut family, like hickories and pecans, are popular for their delicious nuts.

Examples

  • Farmers often plant trees from the walnut family for both timber and nut production.

  • This cross-section of an extinct wood of the walnut family is from the Eocene Clarno formation in Oregon.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The walnut family includes many varieties of trees that produce edible nuts.

Synonyms

Juglandaceae
vswalnut family
  • Specialized
9.9

A family of trees like walnuts and pecans that usually have edible nuts

gives the formal family name and adds one more named member

Surface Forms

walnut family singular
walnut families plural

Morphology

walnut + family

The phrase is compositional: 'walnut' names the tree and 'family' denotes a group of related species, so a learner who knows both words can infer it means the taxonomic group containing walnuts and related trees. The '[X] family' construction is a common, cross-linguistic way to name biological groups and is not idiomatic, making the meaning immediately accessible to B1 learners.

Etymology

The name walnut family comes from using the common tree walnut to name a 'family' of similar trees. So, walnut family means a group of trees, like walnuts, pecans, and hickories, that produce edible nuts.