主题：（轻松一下），蔬菜和水果的区别？ -- 非

What determines if something is a fruit or vegetable?

A vegetable is described as "any herbaceous (non-woody) plant or plant part that is eaten with the main course rather than as a dessert. It usually has a bland taste."

Botanically the fruit is "the developed ovary of a seed plant with its contents and accessory parts, as the pea pod, nut, tomato, pineapple, etc." or " the edible part of a plant developed from a flower with any accessory tissues, as the peach, mulberry, banana, etc."

The confusion arises because the "vegetable" can have "fruit" which are the reproductive parts. The tomato is probably the only legally declared vegetable in a Supreme Court ruling in the early 1900's.

fruit ( P ) Pronunciation Key (frt)

n. pl. fruit or fruits

1.A.The ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant, together with accessory parts, containing the seeds and occurring in a wide variety of forms.

B.An edible, usually sweet and fleshy form of such a structure.

C.A part or an amount of such a plant product, served as food: fruit for dessert.

2.The fertile, often spore-bearing structure of a plant that does not bear seeds.

3.A plant crop or product: the fruits of the earth.

4.Result; outcome: the fruit of their labor.

5.Offspring; progeny.

6.A fruity aroma or flavor in a wine.

7.Offensive Slang. Used as a disparaging term for a homosexual man.

veg·e·ta·ble ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vjt-bl, vj-t-)

n.

1. A.A plant cultivated for an edible part, such as the root of the beet, the leaf of spinach, or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower.

B.The edible part of such a plant.

C.A member of the vegetable kingdom; a plant.

2. Offensive Slang. One who is severely impaired mentally and physically, as by brain injury or disease.

3. One who is regarded as dull, passive, or unresponsive.