Pomelo
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The large fruit of the Citrus maxima (syn. C. grandis), native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, with a thick green or yellow rind, a thick white pith, and semi-sweet translucent pale flesh.
- 2 large pear-shaped fruit similar to grapefruit but with coarse dry pulp wordnet
- 3 The tree which produces this fruit.
- 4 southeastern Asian tree producing large fruits resembling grapefruits wordnet
- 5 The grapefruit. Caribbean, US, archaic
"SHADDOCK, AND POMELO, OR GRAPE-FRUIT. (Citrus aurantium decumana.*) The cultivation of these fruits is extendiug gradually, especially of the pomelo, which is a first-class marketable fruit, very valuable in the spring and early summer."
Example
More examples"The orange is a hybrid between a pomelo and a mandarin."
Etymology
Of uncertain etymology, though possibly a variant of earlier pampelmoes, from French, Dutch, Portuguese sources ultimately equivalent to "thick lemon" or transcribing the Tamil பம்ப ளிமாசு (pampa ḷimācu, “big citrus”). Alternatively, possibly from pome (“apple”) + melon or some cognate; though such a compound is currently unattested, some early variant spellings seem to show influence from pome.
Related phrases
More for "pomelo"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.