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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

vanilla.

Any tropical climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/vəˈnɪl.ə//vəˈnɛl.ə/
  1. Any tropical climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.

    countable
  2. The fruit or bean of the vanilla plant.

    countable
  3. The extract of the fruit of the vanilla plant.

    uncountable
  4. The distinctive fragrant flavour/flavor characteristic of vanilla extract.

    uncountable
  5. Any artificially produced homologue of vanilla extract, principally vanillin produced from lignin from the paper industry or from petrochemicals.

    uncountable
  6. Someone who is not into fetishism.

    countable · slang
  7. An unmodded version of a game.

    slang · uncountable
  8. A yellowish-white colour, like that of vanilla ice cream.

    countable · uncountable
  9. A white person.

    countable · derogatory · ethnic · slur · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wāgīnā Latin vāgīna Old Spanish vayna Spanish vaina Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Latin -ella Old Spanish -iella Spanish -illa Spanish vainillabor. English vanilla Borrowed from Spanish vainilla, a diminutive form of vaina (“pod”). "Plain" senses derive from the perceived plainness of vanilla ice cream.

adj/vəˈnɪl.ə//vəˈnɛl.ə/
  1. Of vanilla.

    usually
  2. Standard, plain, default, unmodified, basic.

    colloquial · retronym
    vanilla JavaScript
  3. Not kinky, not involving BDSM.

  4. Plain; conventional; unimaginative.

    a vanilla rendition of the concerto
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wāgīnā Latin vāgīna Old Spanish vayna Spanish vaina Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Latin -ella Old Spanish -iella Spanish -illa Spanish vainillabor. English vanilla Borrowed from Spanish vainilla, a diminutive form of vaina (“pod”). "Plain" senses derive from the perceived plainness of vanilla ice cream.

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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.