Peppercorn
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The seeds of the pepper plant Piper nigrum, commonly used as a spice, usually ground or crushed.
- 2 pungent seasoning from the berry of the common pepper plant of East India; use whole or ground wordnet
- 3 A small, insignificant quantity; a whit or jot.
"A 75 ¢ book must look 40 ¢ better to the distributor and wholesaler, because if one peppercorn of doubt that people will pay 75 ¢ for the book gets thrown into the distribution mill, the books may never leave their cartons […]"
- 4 A small, insignificant quantity; a whit or jot.; A nominal consideration used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contract. attributive
"peppercorn rent"
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"A 75 ¢ book must look 40 ¢ better to the distributor and wholesaler, because if one peppercorn of doubt that people will pay 75 ¢ for the book gets thrown into the distribution mill, the books may never leave their cartons […]"
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English peper corn, peper-corn, pepercorn, from Old English piporcorn (“peppercorn”), corresponding to pepper + corn. Compare Dutch peperkorrel (“peppercorn”), German Pfefferkorn (“peppercorn”), Danish peberkorn (“peppercorn”), Swedish pepparkorn (“peppercorn”), Icelandic piparkorn (“peppercorn”).
Related phrases
More for "peppercorn"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.