acorn

noun

ˈā-ˌkȯrn  -kərn 

: the nut of the oak usually seated in or surrounded by a hard woody cupule of indurated bracts

Illustration of acorn

Examples of acorn in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Things get weirder and more delightful with a bobcat and bear band, where instruments are fashioned out of logs and vegetation, and later some Afro-Cuban frogs jamming out with acorns. —Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2024

Some years, a glut of acorns fell, creating a squirrel’s paradise under every tree. —Ian Rose, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 May 2024

Jesse Hernandez of the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office shot up his vehicle after the acorn struck the hood during the Nov. 12, 2023 incident. —Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 14 Feb. 2024

The most common explanation has involved those hungry squirrels, birds and countless other species that eat acorns. —Ian Rose, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English akorn, akkorn (partially assimilated to corn "kernel, corn entry 1"), hakerne, accherne, accharne, going back to Old English æcern, going back to Germanic *akrana- (whence also Middle High German ackeran "tree nuts," Old Norse akarn, Gothic akran "fruit, produce"); akin to Old Irish írne "sloe, kernel," Welsh eirin "plums, sloes," aeron "fruits, berries," going back to Celtic *agrinyo-, *agranyo-; perhaps further akin to a Balto-Slavic word with an initial long vowel (Old Church Slavic agoda "fruit," Polish jagoda "berry," Lithuanian úoga)

Note: Taken to be a derivative of Indo-European *h₂eǵros "uncultivated field, pasture" (see acre), though this would seem to exclude the Balto-Slavic etymon, which lacks the suffix, from consideration. It is also not clear if fields, uncultivated or not, are the source of wild tree nuts.

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing acorn

• acorn squash
• acorn woodpecker
• acorn worm

Kids Definition

acorn

noun

ˈā-ˌkȯrn  -kərn 

: the roundish one-seeded thin-shelled nut of an oak tree usually having a woody cap