pumpkin
n. C / Un. a large, round, orange vegetable with a thick skin. People often use them to make soup or carve them into faces for Halloween.
n. a large, round, orange fruit of the genus Cucurbita, typically used as a vegetable in cooking or for decorative purposes during autumn festivals.
We carved a scary face into the pumpkin.
Every October, the local farm sells hundreds of pumpkins to families preparing for the holiday.
The chef prepared a seasonal menu featuring roasted pumpkin seeds and a creamy squash soup served inside a hollowed-out gourd.
Alteration of pompion, pumpion (“pumpkin”) with the diminutive -kin, from Middle French pompon, from Latin pepō (whence English pepo), from Ancient Greek πέπων (pépōn, “large melon”), from πέπων (pépōn, “ripe”), from πέπτω (péptō, “ripen”). The first attestation is from 1647. The alternative theory that it may be from Massachusett pôhpukun (“grows forth round”) is false. The automotive sense is by fancied resemblance.
Countable when referring to the whole fruit; uncountable when referring to the flesh used as food.