melon

/ˈmɛlən/

/ˈmɛlən/

Other forms: melons

A melon is a round, sweet fruit with a hard outer skin. Add some color to your fruit salad by including different types of melon, like honeydew and cantaloupe.

Melons are actually a type of berry, although you wouldn't know that to look at a watermelon, which can weigh 20 pounds or more. Melons grow on vines, like squash and gourds, and their rinds are so thick they need to be cut open with a sharp knife. When a melon is ripe, its flesh is soft, sweet, and juicy. The Greek root is mēlopepon, "gourd-apple."

Definitions of melon

1. noun

   any of numerous fruits of the gourd family having a hard rind and sweet juicy flesh
   types:

   melon ball

   a bite of melon cut as a sphere

   muskmelon, sweet melon

   the fruit of a muskmelon vine; any of several sweet melons related to cucumbers

   watermelon

   large oblong or roundish melon with a hard green rind and sweet watery red or occasionally yellowish pulp

   cantaloup, cantaloupe

   the fruit of a cantaloup vine; small to medium-sized melon with yellowish flesh

   winter melon

   the fruit of the winter melon vine; a green melon with pale green to orange flesh that keeps well

   net melon, netted melon, nutmeg melon

   the fruit of a variety of muskmelon vine; a melon with netlike markings and deep green flesh

   type of:

   edible fruit

   edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh
2. noun

   any of various fruit of cucurbitaceous vines including: muskmelons; watermelons; cantaloupes; cucumbers
   synonyms: melon vine

   types:

   Citrullus vulgaris, watermelon, watermelon vine

   an African melon

   Cucumis melo, muskmelon, sweet melon, sweet melon vine

   any of several varieties of vine whose fruit has a netted rind and edible flesh and a musky smell

   Cucumis sativus, cucumber, cucumber vine

   a melon vine of the genus Cucumis; cultivated from earliest times for its cylindrical green fruit

   Cucumis melo cantalupensis, cantaloup, cantaloup vine, cantaloupe, cantaloupe vine

   a variety of muskmelon vine having fruit with a tan rind and orange flesh

   Cucumis melo inodorus, Persian melon, honeydew melon, winter melon, winter melon vine

   any of a variety of muskmelon vines having fruit with a smooth white rind and white or greenish flesh that does not have a musky smell

   Cucumis melo reticulatus, net melon, netted melon, nutmeg melon

   a muskmelon vine with fruit that has a thin reticulated rind and sweet green flesh

   type of:

   gourd, gourd vine

   any vine of the family Cucurbitaceae that bears fruits with hard rinds