What does "kumquat" mean?

A small, orange citrus-like fruit which is native to Asia (Citrus japonica, syn. Fortunella japonica).

What is a synonym for "kumquat"?

Common synonyms include: berry, cumquat, ebony, fruit, kumquat tree, oak.

//ˈkʌmkwɑt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A small, orange citrus-like fruit which is native to Asia (Citrus japonica, syn. Fortunella japonica).
2
small oval citrus fruit with thin sweet rind and very acid pulp wordnet
3
any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Fortunella bearing small orange-colored edible fruits with thick sweet-flavored skin and sour pulp wordnet

"I can't believe you've never heard of a kumquat!"

From Cantonese 柑橘 (gam¹ gwat¹) or 金橘 (gam¹ gwat¹, literally “golden tangerine”). Related to loquat – same second character.

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