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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ripen.

Of grain, fruit, flowers, etc., to grow ripe; to become mature.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈɹaɪpən/
  1. Of grain, fruit, flowers, etc., to grow ripe; to become mature.

    intransitive
    Grapes ripen in the sun.
  2. To approach or come to perfection.

    intransitive
  3. To cause (something) to mature; to make ripe.

    transitive
    The warm sun ripened the corn.
  4. To mature; to fit or prepare; to bring to perfection.

    transitive
    ripen the judgment
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *ripenen, extended form of ripen, from Old English rīpian. In the modern form, equivalent to ripe + -en (inchoative and factitive suffix). As in several other verbs, the alteration seems to have occurred during the time when the infinitive and plural ending -en was in the process of being lost (and was thus open to reinterpretation). The earliest attestation is deverbal Middle English ripening (“causing ripeness, ripening”).

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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.