What does "jackfruit" mean?

A tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus, of the Moraceae family, which produces edible fruit.

What is a synonym for "jackfruit"?

Common synonyms include: jack, jackfruit tree, artocarpus heterophyllus, berry, fruit, jack.

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus, of the Moraceae family, which produces edible fruit.
"On our return we stopped at Mr. Wijeysakera's home, quaffed the juice of King Cocoanut, looked through his extensive grounds, and saw several kinds of palm, the breadfruit-tree, the jackfruit-tree, the nux-vomica-tree, pimento or allspice shrub, nutmeg-tree, pineapples of different varieties."
2
immense East Indian fruit resembling breadfruit; it contains an edible pulp and nutritious seeds that are commonly roasted wordnet
3
The large fruit from this tree.
"The fruit grows on the branches from the axil of the leaves, and attains the size of a cantaloupe melon, but more oval, and generally eight to ten inches long; it has a stalk proportioned to its size, and exactly resembles the jackfruit, which is known to all those who have journeyed to the Indies."
4
East Indian tree cultivated for its immense edible fruit and seeds wordnet

"The next day, I bought a jackfruit."

From jack (“jackfruit”), from Portuguese jaca (“jackfruit”), from Malayalam ചക്ക (cakka) / Tamil சக்கை (cakkai), + fruit.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.