| / English Dictionary |
BANANA
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Elongated crescent-shaped yellow fruit with soft sweet flesh
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("banana" is a kind of...):
edible fruit (edible reproductive body of a seed plant especially one having sweet flesh)
Holonyms ("banana" is a part of...):
dwarf banana; Musa acuminata (low-growing Asian banana tree cultivated especially in the West Indies for its clusters of edible yellow fruit)
edible banana; Musa paradisiaca sapientum (widely cultivated species of banana trees bearing compact hanging clusters of commercially important edible yellow fruit)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Any of several tropical and subtropical treelike herbs of the genus Musa having a terminal crown of large entire leaves and usually bearing hanging clusters of elongated fruits
Synonyms:
banana; banana tree
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("banana" is a kind of...):
herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "banana"):
dwarf banana; Musa acuminata (low-growing Asian banana tree cultivated especially in the West Indies for its clusters of edible yellow fruit)
Japanese banana; Musa basjoo (Asiatic banana plant cultivated especially as a foliage plant in Japan)
Musa paradisiaca; plantain; plantain tree (a banana tree bearing hanging clusters of edible angular greenish starchy fruits; tropics and subtropics)
edible banana; Musa paradisiaca sapientum (widely cultivated species of banana trees bearing compact hanging clusters of commercially important edible yellow fruit)
abaca; Manila hemp; Musa textilis (Philippine banana tree having leafstalks that yield Manila hemp used for rope and paper etc)
Holonyms ("banana" is a member of...):
genus Musa; Musa (type genus of the Musaceae: bananas)
Context examples:
Foods high in magnesium include almonds, bananas, beans, broccoli, brown rice, cashews, egg yolk, fish oil, flaxseed, green vegetables, milk, mushrooms, other nuts, oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, soybeans, sunflower seeds, sweet corn, tofu, and whole grains (see: Foods, by content of Magnesium, Mg)
(Low Magnesium Levels Make Vitamin D Ineffective, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
"The East African Highland cooking banana is an excellent source of starch. It is harvested green then chopped and steamed," Professor Dale said.
(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
First identified in Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia in the early 1990s, TR4 has since spread to Africa and now threatens the vast banana plantations of Latin America.
(GM tech expands with more crops to more countries, SciDev.Net)
Professor Dale said the genetic modification process had resulted in the identification and selection of banana genes that could be used to enhance pro-vitamin A in banana fruit.
(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
The Cavendish — which accounts for nearly half of all banana varieties grown in the world and most imports into Europe and the US — can be protected by splicing in genes from banana varieties resistant to the deadly Tropical Race 4 (TR4) strain of the Fusarium oxysporum fungus as well as a gene from a nematode worm.
(GM tech expands with more crops to more countries, SciDev.Net)
Professor Dale describes the development of the bio-fortified banana as a significant humanitarian project.
(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Left unchecked, TR4 may well cause the Cavendish to go extinct, threatening the livelihoods of 400 million people around the world who rely on this banana variety as food or as a source of income.
(GM tech expands with more crops to more countries, SciDev.Net)
Researchers succeeded to develop bananas high in pro-vitamin A in Uganda.
(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Thanks to the new study, farmers in the African nation will be growing such vitamin-rich bananas in 2021.
(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
"What we've done is take a gene from a banana that originated in Papua New Guinea and is naturally very high in pro-vitamin A but has small bunches, and inserted it into a Cavendish banana," Professor Dale said.
(Golden Bananas High in Pro-Vitamin A Developed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
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