Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Coconut |
CoconutNoun1. The edible white meat a coconut; often shredded for use in e.g. cakes and curries. 2. Large hard-shelled oval nut with a fibrous husk containing thick white meat surrounding a central cavity filled (when fresh) with fluid or milk. 3. Tall palm tree bearing coconuts as fruits; widely planted throughout the tropics. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "coconut" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1870. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Coconut palm in ThailandThe coconut palm is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family). The origins of this plant are the subject of debate with some authorities claiming it is native to the Southeast Asian peninsula while others claim its origin is in northwestern South America. Fossil records from New Zealand indicate that small coconut-like plants were found there as far back 15 million years ago. Even older fossils have been uncovered in Rajasthan, India. Regardless of their origins coconuts have spread across much of the tropics, in particular along tropical shorelines. Since its fruit is light and buoyant the plant is readily spread by marine currents which can carry coconuts significant distances. The coconut palm thrives on sandy, saline soils in areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall which makes colonising the shore relatively straightforward. Fruits collected from the sea as far north as Norway have been found to be viable and have subsequently germinated given the right conditions.
In BOTANY, a coconut is a simple dry fruit known as a fibrous drupe (not a nut). The husk (mesocarp) is fibrous and there is an inner "stone" (the endocarp). This hard endocarp has three germination pores that are clearly visible on the outside surface once the husk is removed. It is through one of these that the radicle emerges when the embryo germinates.
All parts of coconut plant are useful and the trees have a comparatively high yield (up to 75 "nuts" per year) it therefore has significant economic value. Indeed in Sanskrit the name for the coconut palm is kalpa vriksha, which translates as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life". Uses of the various parts of the palm include:
- The white, fleshy part of the seed is edible and used fresh or dried in cooking;
- The cavity is filled with "coconut water" containing sugars which are used as a refreshing drink;
- Coconut milk (which is approximately 17% fat) is made by processing grated coconut with hot water which extracts the oil and aromatic compounds;
- The sap derived from incising the flower clusters of the coconut form a drink known as "toddy" or, in the Philippines, tuba;
- Apical buds of adult plants are edible and are known as "palm-cabbage";
- The interior of the growing tip is called heart-of-palm and eaten in salads sometimes called "millionaire's salad";
- Coir is the fiber from the husk of the coconut, used in ropes, mats, brushes, calking boats and as stuffing fiber;
- Copra is the dried meat of the seed which is the source of coconut oil;
- The trunks provide building timbers;
- The leaves provide materials for baskets and roofing thatch;
- The husk and shells can be used for fuel and are a good source of charcoal;
- Hawaiians hollow the swollen trunk base to form a drum.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Coconut."
Synonyms: CoconutSynonyms: coco (n), coco palm (n), cocoa palm (n), cocoanut (n), coconut meat (n), coconut palm (n), coconut tree (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Coconut |
| English words defined with "coconut": ambrosia ♦ babacu oil, babassu oil ♦ coconut cake, coconut cream, coconut macaroon, coconut meat, coconut milk, coconut water, Cocos, coir, copra, curry sauce ♦ dehydrated, desiccated, dodecanoic acid, dried ♦ genus Cocos ♦ lauric acid ♦ pina colada ♦ snowball. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "coconut": BACTRIS ♦ CHEESE SPRAYER, COPRA PROCESSOR ♦ FRUIT-BAR MAKER ♦ IRIARTEA ♦ Saturated fat. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich (Forrest Gump; writing credit: Eric Roth) Forgot the coconut. (Manhattan; writing credit: Woody Allen ; Marshall Brickman) You put the beer in the coconut and drink it all up, you put the beer in the coconut and throw the can away (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) It's served in the shell of a once living coconut that is now dead (Tiny Toon Adventures; writing credit: Charles Adler; Pat Allee) I've heard of method actors, but you take the coconut! (UFO; writing credit: Gérard Sire) | |
Lyrics | We'll split the difference, go to Coconut Grove (American Dream; performing artist: The Dirt Band) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Coconut Nut (1991) | |
Song Titles | Coconut (performing artist: Nilsson) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
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Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A display of high fat foods. Such as pastries, lunch meat, crackers, olives, avocado, peanut butter, and coconut on a table. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. |  | (2) color slides show different types of pie. (1) slice of lemon meringue, (1) slice of coconut cream with a dollop of whipped cream. Credit: Renee Comet (photographer). |
 | Coconut Island. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Remains of coconut plantation after direct hit by Typhoon Amy. Credit: Small World. |
 | Native standing by destroyed banana and coconut groves after Typhoon Amy. Credit: Small World. |  | Bob Nishimoto and Mr. Pauley, owner of Coconut Island, a benefactor of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. Credit: Small World. |
 | Coconut crab climbing tree. Crab carapace is about 6" in diameter. With claws, crab is about a foot in diameter. Claws are capable of opening coconuts. Edible by humans. Credit: Small World. |  | Typhoon damage from a Category 5 typhoon about a week after the storm. Totally wiped out a coconut and breadfruit plantation. Inhabitants dug pit on highest part of island and put coconut logs over pit for shelter. Some fatalities occurred. Credit: Small World. |
 | Coconut plantation on coral spit of high volcanic island. Credit: Small World. |  | A Manila dwarf coconut palm on the grounds of the Tropical Agriculture Research Station in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Coconut" by Elias Minasi Commentary: "Coconut palm and leafs. Fell free to download it, just rate and comment." | "Coconut palm texture" by Marcel Gussoni Commentary: "Coconut palm texture." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | However, foods such as crackers made with coconut, palm, or palm kernel oil can be high in saturated fats as well. Read labels carefully. (references) | |
Economic History | Sri Lanka | Coconut production also increased sharply. (references) |
Sri Lanka | Rubber and coconut production is at last year's levels. (references) | |
Samoa | Samoa's principal exports are coconut products and fish. (references) | |
Political Economy | Samoa | Fish, kava, and coconut products are the principal exports. (references) |
Philippines | The main agricultural and resource-based exports include coconut oil, bananas, fresh and preserved seafood, and copper. (references) | |
PHILIPPINES | Excise taxes on distilled spirits impose a lower tax on products made from materials that are indigenously available (e.g., coconut, palm, sugar cane). (references) | |
Travel | Honduras | Hotel construction projects in the country include the Crowne Plaza in Tegucigalpa, and the Iguana Bay Hotel, Hotel Coconut Tree, and Park Hyatt Resort in the Bay Islands, among others. (references) |
Worker Rights | Sri Lanka | Children also are involved in the manufacture of coconut fiber products, bricks, fishing, wrapping tobacco, street trading, and farming. (references) |
Dominica | However the banana, coconut and citrus fruit industries as well as port services are deemed "essential services," which effectively prohibits workers in these sectors from going on strike. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Rush Limbaugh | I remember the Center for Science and the Public Interest put out this silly notion that popcorn popped in coconut oil was bad and was going to kill you. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Coconut" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.84% of the time. "Coconut" is used about 285 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.84% | 276 | 17,631 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.16% | 9 | 117,287 |
| Total | 100.00% | 285 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "coconut": coconut butter ♦ coconut cake ♦ coconut cream ♦ coconut Creek ♦ coconut fibre ♦ coconut in the shell ♦ coconut macaroon ♦ coconut matting ♦ coconut meat ♦ coconut milk ♦ coconut oil ♦ coconut palm ♦ coconut shy ♦ coconut tree ♦ coconut water. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "coconut": coconut-cream, coconut-fibre, coconut-style, coconut-wood. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
coconut oil | 2,522 | coconut recipe | 69 |
coconut | 1,483 | coconut movie music | 66 |
coconut palm | 726 | coconut oil thyroid | 64 |
virgin coconut oil | 339 | coconut oil recipe | 56 |
coconut music | 261 | coconut cove park water | 54 |
coconut info.com | 231 | coconut cream pie recipe | 53 |
coconut grove | 176 | coconut diet oil | 52 |
coconut music store | 170 | coconut picture | 52 |
coconut tree | 162 | coconut creek city | 51 |
coconut cake | 154 | coconut joes | 51 |
coconut shrimp | 139 | extra virgin coconut oil | 50 |
coconut cream pie | 130 | coconut creek florida | 50 |
coconut shrimp recipe | 120 | coconut company list | 48 |
agriculture coconut | 119 | coconut pie | 47 |
coconut cake recipe | 104 | coconut store | 45 |
coconut milk | 101 | open a coconut | 45 |
kauai coconut beach resort | 100 | coconut beach | 44 |
coconut grove convention center | 75 | coconut candle | 44 |
coconut loss oil weight | 75 | coconut creek | 43 |
agriculture coconut oil | 72 | coconut chicken | 43 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "coconut"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i kokosit, arrë kokosi (Coco). (various references) | |
Arabic | جوزة الهند, شجرة جوزة الهند. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | кокосов орех (cocoanut), кокосов. (various references) | |
Chamorro | niyok. (various references) | |
Chinese | 椰子 . (various references) | |
Czech | kokosový ořech, kokos (Coco, loaf sugar). (various references) | |
Danish | kokosnoed, kokosnød. (various references) | |
Dutch | kokosnoot (cocoanut, cocoa-nut, coco-nut), klappernoot (cocoanut, cocoa-nut, coco-nut), klapper (cocoanut, cocoa-nut, coco-nut). (various references) | |
Esperanto | kokoso (cocoanut, cocoa-nut, coco-nut), kokosnukso (cocoanut, cocoa-nut, coco-nut). (various references) | |
Faeroese | kokusnøt. (various references) | |
Farsi | نارگیل(cocoanut=). (various references) | |
Finnish | kookospähkinä. (various references) | |
French | noix de coco. (various references) | |
Frisian | kokosnút. (various references) | |
German | kokosnuss, Kokosnuß. (various references) | |
Greek | καρύδι κοκκοφοίνικα, καρύδα, καρίδα. (various references) | |
Hebrew | קוקוס, אגוז קוקוס, אגוז הודו, דקל הקוקוס. (various references) | |
Hungarian | kókuszdió (Coco). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kelapa. (various references) | |
Irish | cnó cócó. (various references) | |
Italian | noce di cocco. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 椰子油 (coconut oil), ココ椰子 (bodice of a woman's dress, coconut palm, corsage, small bouquet worn by a woman). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ココやし (coconut palm), やしゆ (coconut oil). (various references) | |
Korean | 야자열매. (various references) | |
Malay | kelapa. (various references) | |
Manx | cro bainney. (various references) | |
Papago | chahngo-mo'o. (various references) | |
Papiamen | koko. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oconutcay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | coco (coccus, coco, cocoa nut, coco-nut). (various references) | |
Russian | кокосовый орех (cocoanut), кокосовый, кокос (coco, cocoa-nut), орех кокосовый, плод кокосовой пальмы. (various references) | |
Sepedi | khokhonate. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | kokosov orah. (various references) | |
Spanish | coco (bogeyman, brain, bugaboo, bugbear, cocoanut). (various references) | |
Sranan | kronto, kokronoto. (various references) | |
Swahili | nazi (cocoanut, cocoa-nut, coco-nut), dafu (cocoanut, cocoa-nut, coco-nut). (various references) | |
Swedish | kokosnöt (cocoanut). (various references) | |
Tahitian | t‘ha'ari (with coconut milk), ha'ari (coconut milk). (various references) | |
Turkish | kafa (bean, brains, cast of mind, chump, conk, costard, end, head, headpiece, intelligence, knob, nob, noddle, noggin, noodle, nut, onion, pate, poll, potato, savvy, sconce), hindistancevizi (Coco), baş (arch, arch-, beginning, beginnings, bow, capital, central, chief, costard, especial, first, foremost, general, governing, grand, head, heading, in chief, initial, knob, leader, master, nob, noddle, off, outset, potato, premier, primal, primary, prime, principal, sconce, top). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | кокосовий (cocoanut), кокос (cocoanut). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | COCOS NUCIFERA. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "coconut": coconuts. (additional references) | |
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"Coconut" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cecconi, cocanut, cocent, Cocoluche, colonum. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "coconut" (pronounced kō"kunu't) |
| 3 | -n u' t | chestnut, donut, doughnut, groundnut, hazelnut, walnut. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-c-n-o-o-t-u" | |
-2 letters: conto, count. | |
-3 letters: coco, coon, coot, onto, toon, unco, unto. | |
-4 letters: con, coo, cot, cut, noo, not, nut, oot, out, ton, too, tun. | |
-5 letters: no, nu, on, to, un, ut. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-c-n-o-o-t-u" | |
+1 letter: cocoanut, coconuts. | |
+2 letters: cocoanuts, conductor. | |
+3 letters: cofunction, conduction, conductors, cuckoopint, occupation. | |
+4 letters: coeducation, cofunctions, compunction, conductions, conjunction, consecution, constructor, coruscation, countercoup, cuckoopints, occultation, occupations, outcoaching, pococurante. | |
+5 letters: coeducations, communicator, compunctions, compunctious, conductorial, conjunctions, consecutions, construction, constructors, contumacious, coproduction, coruscations, countercoups, counterforce, enterococcus, flocculation, nonconductor, occultations, occupational, reoccupation. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Quotations: Spoken 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
