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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

berry.

A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɛɹi/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbeɹi/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈbeɹi] ~ [ˈbe̞ɹi]Australia[ˈbe̝ɹi] ~ [ˈbɪɹi]New-Zealand
  1. A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties.

  2. A soft fruit which develops from a single ovary and contains seeds not encased in pits.

  3. A coffee bean.

  4. One of the ova or eggs of a fish or crustacean.

  5. A police car.

    US · slang
  6. A dollar.

    US · dated · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bazją Proto-West Germanic *baʀi Old English berġe Middle English berie English berry From Middle English berie, from Old English berġe, from Proto-West Germanic *baʀi, from Proto-Germanic *bazją. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bäie, West Flemish beier, German Beere, Icelandic ber, Danish bær. The slang sense "police car" may come from the lights on the vehicles' roofs.

verb/ˈbɛɹi/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbeɹi/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈbeɹi] ~ [ˈbe̞ɹi]Australia[ˈbe̝ɹi] ~ [ˈbɪɹi]New-Zealand
  1. To pick berries.

    intransitive
    On summer days Grandma used to take us berrying, whether we wanted to go or not.
  2. To bear or produce berries.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *bazją Proto-West Germanic *baʀi Old English berġe Middle English berie English berry From Middle English berie, from Old English berġe, from Proto-West Germanic *baʀi, from Proto-Germanic *bazją. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bäie, West Flemish beier, German Beere, Icelandic ber, Danish bær. The slang sense "police car" may come from the lights on the vehicles' roofs.

noun/ˈbɛɹi/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbeɹi/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈbeɹi] ~ [ˈbe̞ɹi]Australia[ˈbe̝ɹi] ~ [ˈbɪɹi]New-Zealand
  1. A mound; a barrow.

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English berȝe, berghe, from Old English beorġe, dative form of beorg (“mountain, hill, mound, barrow”), from Proto-West Germanic *berg, from Proto-Germanic *bergaz (“mountain, hill”). More at barrow. Cognates Cognate with Scots burrow (“mound, tumulus, barrow”), North Frisian Bārig, beerch, beeri, beerj, berag, berig, berri, bärj (“mountain”), Saterland Frisian Bierich, Bíerig, Bäirch (“mountain”), West Frisian berch (“mountain”), Cimbrian pèrge (“mountain”), Dutch berg (“mountain”), German Berg (“mountain”), German Low German Barg (“mountain”), Limburgish berg, Bärrech (“hill, mountain”), Luxembourgish Bierg (“mountain”), Mòcheno pèrg (“mountain”), Yiddish באַרג (barg, “mountain”), Danish bjerg (“mountain”), Faroese berg, bjarg (“cliff”), bjørg (“cliffs”), Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish berg (“mountain”); also Northern Luri برگ (berg, “mountain”), Polish brzeg (“bank, shore”), Russian бе́рег (béreg, “bank, shore”).

noun/ˈbɛɹi/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbeɹi/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈbeɹi] ~ [ˈbe̞ɹi]Australia[ˈbe̝ɹi] ~ [ˈbɪɹi]New-Zealand
  1. A burrow, especially a rabbit's burrow.

    dialectal
  2. An excavation; a military mine.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English bery (“a burrow”). More at burrow.

verb/ˈbɛɹi/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈbeɹi/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈbeɹi] ~ [ˈbe̞ɹi]Australia[ˈbe̝ɹi] ~ [ˈbɪɹi]New-Zealand
  1. To beat; give a beating to; thrash.

    transitive
  2. To thresh (grain).

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English beryen, berien, from Old English *berian (found only in past participle ġebered (“crushed, kneaded, harassed, oppressed, vexed”)), from Proto-West Germanic *barjan, from Proto-Germanic *barjaną (“to beat, hit”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to rip, cut, split, grate”). Cognate with Scots berry, barry (“to thresh, thrash”), German beren (“to beat, knead”), Icelandic berja (“to beat”), Latin feriō (“strike, hit”, verb).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.