olive

1. 1.

   small ovoid fruit of the European olive tree; important food and source of oil

   Broaderfruit
2. 2.

   evergreen tree cultivated in the Mediterranean region since antiquity and now elsewhere; has edible shiny black fruits

   SynonymsEuropean olive treeOlea europaea

   Broaderolive tree

   Part ofOlea
3. 3.

   hard yellow often variegated wood of an olive tree; used in cabinetwork

   Broaderwood
4. 4.

   one-seeded fruit of the European olive tree usually pickled and used as a relish

   Broaderrelishdrupe

   Narrowerblack olivegreen olive
5. 5.

   a yellow-green color of low brightness and saturation

   Broaderchromatic color

   Narrowerolive drab

1. 1.

   of a yellow-green color similar to that of an unripe olive

   Similarchromatic

Other forms of olive

plural

olives·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about olive

What does olive mean?

olive means "small ovoid fruit of the European olive tree; important food and source of oil". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in olive?

olive has 2 syllables: o-live. The stress falls on "o". In IPA it is /ˈɑləv/.

What is another word for olive?

Close synonyms include European olive tree, Olea europaea. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is olive a common word?

olive is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.