Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A deciduous tree (Prunus dulcis) in the rose family, native to Asia and northern Africa and having alternate, simple leaves, pink flowers, and leathery fruits.
  • noun The ellipsoidal kernel of this tree, either eaten as a nut or used for extraction of an oil for flavoring.
  • noun Any of several other plants, such as the Indian almond, especially those with fruits or seeds suggestive of the almond.
  • noun Something having the oval form of an almond.
  • noun A pale tan.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The stone or kernel of the fruit of Prunus (Amygdalus) communis, the almond-tree (which see).
  • noun Anything shaped like an almond; an ornament in the shape of an almond; specifically, a piece of rock-crystal used in adorning branched candlesticks.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The fruit of the almond tree.
  • noun The tree that bears the fruit; almond tree.
  • noun (Anat.) Anything shaped like an almond.
  • noun fixed oil expressed from sweet or bitter almonds.
  • noun a poisonous volatile oil obtained from bitter almonds by maceration and distillation; benzoic aldehyde.
  • noun nitrobenzene.
  • noun (Bot.) the tree bearing the almond.
  • noun (Bot.) a willow which has leaves that are of a light green on both sides; almond-leaved willow (Salix amygdalina).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun countable A type of tree nut.
  • noun countable A small deciduous tree, Prunus dulcis, that produces almonds.
  • noun uncountable The colour of the kernel of an almond without its shell and thin seed coat, a creamy off-white colour.
  • noun uncountable The color of an almond still covered by its skin, a shade of brown.
  • adjective Brownish, resembling the colour of an almond nut.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small bushy deciduous tree native to Asia and North Africa having pretty pink blossoms and highly prized edible nuts enclosed in a hard green hull; cultivated in southern Australia and California
  • noun oval-shaped edible seed of the almond tree

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English almande, from Old French, from Late Latin amandula, alteration of Latin amygdala, from Greek amugdalē.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French almande, from Romanic *amendla (with -l- in French and Spanish, probably by confusion with similar Arabic words), from Latin amygdala, from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdala).

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Examples

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  • See this map for American pronunciation.

    April 11, 2008

  • Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Every party to agreement should sign and acknowledge before a notary public". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.

    January 19, 2013

  • One of the tonsils. --from the definitions.

    February 7, 2013