Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » orange

orange

Listen See in Thesaurus See in a sentence

Orange is a color made by mixing red and yellow.

(noun)

An example of orange is the color of the California poppy.

The definition of an orange is a round, sweet, juicy citrus fruit, yellow-reddish in color.

(noun)

An example of an orange is a satsuma.

See orange in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a reddish-yellow, round, edible citrus fruit, with a sweet, juicy pulp
any of various evergreen trees (genus Citrus) of the rue family producing this fruit, having white, fragrant blossoms and hard, yellow wood
any of several plants or fruits resembling the orange
reddish yellow

Origin: OFr orenge < Prov auranja (with sp. infl. by L aurum, gold, & loss of initial n through faulty separation of art. un) < Sp naranja < Ar nāranj < Pers nārang < Sans naranga, prob. akin to Tamil naṛu, fragrant

adjective

reddish-yellow
made with or from an orange or oranges
having a flavor like that of oranges

noun

name of the ruling family of the Netherlands

adjective

of or having to do with Orangemen

Origin: prob. named for the orange groves there
city in SW Calif.: suburb of Los Angeles: pop. 129,000
river in South Africa, flowing from NE Lesotho west into the Atlantic: c. 1,300 mi (2,092 km)
former principality of W Europe (12th-17th cent.), now in SE France
city in SE France: pop. 26,000

See orange in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

a. Any of several southeast Asian evergreen trees of the genus Citrus, widely cultivated in warm regions and having fragrant white flowers and round fruit with a yellowish or reddish rind and a sectioned, pulpy interior, especially C. sinensis, the sweet orange, and C. aurantium, the Seville or sour orange.
b. The fruit of any of these trees, having a sweetish, acidic juice.
Any of several similar plants, such as the Osage orange and the mock orange.
The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between red and yellow, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 590 to 630 nanometers; any of a group of colors between red and yellow in hue, of medium lightness and moderate saturation.

adjective

Of the color orange.
Made from oranges.
Tasting or smelling like oranges.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English

Origin: , from Old French pume orenge

Origin: , translation and alteration (influenced by Orenge, Orange, a town in France)

Origin: of Old Italian melarancio

Origin: : mela, fruit

Origin: + arancio, orange tree (alteration of Arabic nāranj, from Persian nārang, from Sanskrit nāraṅgaḥ, possibly of Dravidian origin)

Related Forms:

orˈang·y, orˈang·ey (-ĭn-jē) adjective

Word History: Oranges imported to China from the United States reflect a journey come full circle, for the orange had worked its way westward for centuries, originating in China, then being introduced to India, and traveling on to the Middle East, into Europe, and finally to the New World. The history of the word orange keeps step with this journey only part of the way. The word is possibly ultimately from Dravidian, a family of languages spoken in southern India and northern Sri Lanka. The Dravidian word or words were adopted into the Indo-European language Sanskrit with the form nāraṅgaḥ. As the fruit passed westward, so did the word, as evidenced by Persian nārang and Arabic nāranj. Arabs brought the first oranges to Spain, and the fruit rapidly spread throughout Europe. The important word for the development of our term is Old Italian melarancio, derived from mela, “fruit,” and arancio, “orange tree,” from Arabic nāranj. Old Italian melarancio was translated into Old French as pume orenge, the o replacing the a because of the influence of the name of the town of Orange, from which oranges reached the northern part of France. The final stage of the odyssey of the word was its borrowing into English from the Old French form orenge. Our word is first recorded in Middle English in a text probably composed around 1380, a time preceding the arrival of the orange in the New World.

Princely family of Europe ruling continuously in the Netherlands since 1815. The name was first used for a former principality of southeast France that passed to the house of Nassau in 1530.

A city of southern California north-northeast of Santa Ana. It is a manufacturing center in a citrus-growing area. Population: 135,000.

Learn more about orange

orange synonyms

orange in a sentence

orange quotes

orange images