tomato
part of speech
noun (a tomato, tomatoes)
meaning for a pupil
A tomato is a soft, round, juicy fruit, usually red, which is eaten raw in salads or cooked in sauces and soups. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons the tomato is a botanical fruit because it grows from a flower and contains seeds, though in cooking it is used like a vegetable. Pupils grow tomato plants to study plant growth, flowers and seeds. In everyday life tomatoes make ketchup, pizza sauce and soup. Phrases: «tomato sauce» (UK, Australia: ketchup), «cherry tomato», «tomato soup».
examples
- I put slices of tomato in my sandwich. tree →
- The tomato plant grew tall in the greenhouse. tree →
- Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? tree →
- Cherry tomatoes are small and sweet. tree →
- We made tomato soup in class. tree →
- Green tomatoes turn red as they ripen. tree →
- Pass the tomato sauce, please. tree →
- Do you wish to be fried in a pan, or do you prefer to be cooked with tomato sauce?” tree →
note
Plural: tomatoes (with -es, like potatoes). Pronunciation: «to-MAH-to» in the UK, Ireland, Australia, NZ; «to-MAY-to» in the USA and Canada. Myth: tomatoes are poisonous — the fruit is safe; only the leaves and stems are mildly toxic.
In the corpora
- Bumblebees can buzz at a special pitch that shakes pollen out of tomato flowers, and farmers use them in greenhouses.
- Plants make bitter or poisonous chemicals after being attacked; a chewed tomato plant makes its leaves harder to digest.
- Before 1492 Italy had no tomatoes, Ireland had no potatoes and nobody in Europe had tasted chocolate or chilli.
- Acidic food, like tomato or lemon, makes a sore spot in the mouth sting.
- He got away with it all winter and nearly forgot — then Dad dug the pieces up planting tomatoes in spring.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «tomato» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.