What does banana mean?
A banana is a long, gently curved fruit with a soft, creamy flesh and a protective peel that turns from green to bright yellow as it ripens. It grows in large hanging clusters on tall herbaceous plants of the genus Musa, which are native to tropical regions of Southeast Asia but are now cultivated throughout the world's warm climates. Sweet dessert bananas are typically eaten raw — peeled and eaten whole, sliced into cereals and desserts, or blended into smoothies — while their starchier relatives, plantains, are generally cooked before serving. Beyond the kitchen, the word has taken on lively figurative life: to 'go bananas' means to become wildly excited or irrational, and 'top banana' denotes the star performer or person in charge. Botanists note an amusing quirk: the banana qualifies as a berry, and nearly all commercial bananas are genetically identical clones of a single variety, making the crop unusually vulnerable to disease.
nounA banana is a long, curved edible fruit with a soft, sweet flesh and a yellow peel when ripe, produced by several species of large herbaceous flowering plants of the genus Musa. The word also refers to the tropical plant itself.
- The elongated, sweet edible fruit of plants of the genus Musa, having a thick yellow (or green/red) peel and soft flesh.
- The large tropical herbaceous plant itself, which produces these fruits.
- (Informal, chiefly US slang) A foolish or eccentric person; also 'top banana' meaning the leader or most prominent person in a group.
"She sliced a ripe banana into her morning oatmeal."
"He grabbed a banana on his way out because he didn't have time for breakfast."
"The comedian's jokes made the whole audience go bananas with laughter."
The standard plural simply adds -s. The collective term 'hand' describes a cluster of bananas growing together, and 'bunch' refers to a larger grouping.
"She bought two bunches of bananas at the market because they were on sale."
Botanically speaking, the banana isn't a fruit at all — it's technically a berry, and the Cavendish bananas we all eat are seedless clones of one single plant.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of banana
The word 'banana' entered English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, borrowed from Spanish or Portuguese, which in turn took it from a West African source — likely via Wolof or Mande languages along Atlantic trade routes. Some scholars trace it ultimately to Arabic banan ('finger'), referring to the finger-like fruits arranged in clusters called hands. The word spread rapidly alongside the fruit itself as European colonisation carried banana cultivation to the Caribbean and Central America.
How banana is actually used
Informal expressions such as 'go bananas' (to become very excited or crazy) and 'top banana' (the leading figure) are common in American English but less familiar elsewhere. In everyday use, 'banana' almost always refers to the dessert fruit rather than to the starchy plantain, which is treated as a distinct item in most English-speaking countries.
Easily confused with banana
A plantain is a starchy, firmer relative of the banana typically cooked before eating, whereas a banana is sweeter and usually eaten raw.