Quince
//kwɪns// name, noun, slang
name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The pear-shaped fruit of a small tree of the rose family, Cydonia oblonga. countable
- 2 Clipping of quinceañera. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal
"quince dress"
- 3 aromatic acid-tasting pear-shaped fruit used in preserves wordnet
- 4 The deciduous tree bearing such fruit, native to Asia. countable
- 5 small Asian tree with pinkish flowers and pear-shaped fruit; widely cultivated wordnet
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A soft yellow colour, like that of a quince. countable, uncountable
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"He grafted a pear on the quince."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English quynce, coince, a variant of coins, coin (“quince”), from Old French cooing (modern coing), from Late Latin cotōneum, from Latin mālum cotōneum, a variant of mālum Cydonium (“Cydonian apple”), translating Ancient Greek μηλοκυδώνιον (mēlokudṓnion).
Etymology 2
Clipping of quinceañera.
Etymology 3
Probably a topographic surname for someone who lived by a quince tree or a metonymic occupational surname for a grower or seller of quinces.
Related phrases
More for "quince"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.