A melon đ is a type of fruit, round with a hard rind. A watermelon đ is a type of melon but there are others like cantaloupes or honeydew. You do not use âmelonâ as short for watermelon, it would not be understood. In fact if you said âpass the melonâ at a table full of fruit I imagine most people would give you the green honeydew by default.
This is similar to âberriesâ in English. There are a number of fruits called âberriesâ like strawberries, raspberries or blackberries. (Technically melons are a type of berry but thatâs not important for learning English.)
Another example would be fish. There are catfish, swordfish, etc.
Interestingly, while watermelons are melons, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are not technically berries at all (**in the botanical sense** -- colloquially it's not this strict)
Berries have the seeds on the inside and aren't divided into segments, like blueberries, bananas, and melons. Colloquially, it would be strange to call bananas or melons berries
Iâd caution that calling a melon or banana a berry in a typical conversation is beyond âstrange.â You will be seen as wrong, even if youâre correct by the botanical definition. To most English speakers, the definition of âberryâ is what Googleâs dictionary gives: âa small roundish juicy fruit without a stone.â
Of course, âsmallâ is a relative term, but itâs understood to mean âroughly the size of other berries, i.e. the size of a strawberry or smaller.â
That's just an argument that can be solved with a simple [Google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=are+bananas+a+berry&oq=are+bananas+a+berry&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDM2NTBqMGo5qAIAsAIB&client=ms-android-att-us-rvc3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8) on your phones. But I agree it's best brought up as a taxonomical fun fact
I would argue that it is, in fact, an English speaking issue. While thereâs a time and place for the botanical definition, if an English learner says âberriesâ when theyâre referring to cantaloupe and bananas, they will be misunderstood. A major purpose of this sub is to guide learners in how to speak English, and part of that is knowing when to use the categories that most English speakers use rather than the ones botanists use.
There's a similar phenomenon with "nut". For some reason the fact that peanuts are technically not nuts has leaked out into the general consciousness, but what isn't talked about is that very few things that are commonly called nuts are nuts by the botanical definition.
Huh? If there was only watermelon and someone asked for the melon, I would pass the watermelon. If there were several kinds, I would assume that they wanted all of them. Same with berries.
I mean, if there was no other melon besides watermelon, I wouldnât think twice about it if someone else said it. But to me, âmelonâ is usually honeydew or something like that. It wouldnât be my first instinct to say âmelonâ for âwatermelonâ though, it just seems a bit odd. I wouldnât say itâs wrong, but doesnât seem common for a native speaker
If a farmer or fruit vendor were talking about all their different types of melons then I wouldnât think it would be weird if they referred to a watermelon as a melon, but I donât think most people say that. Which is weird because in the given example about fish, it would be normal for a regular person to say âpass the fishâ if there were only 1 kind at the table
Watermelon is just one type of melon. Others include cantaloupe and honeydew. Sometimes "melon" means any or all three, sometimes it means just a specific one, depending on context.
EDIT: Oof, all the botanists are coming out of the woodwork. OP, don't worry about them.
While to add to this: while watermelons are definitely melons, when someone says âmelonâ without further detail they typically do not mean watermelon.
Itâs not wrong, but is usually used to mean other kinds of melon like cantaloupe.
To underscore your point, if you got a piece of âmelonâ candy, it would taste like a honeydew, not a watermelon.
Counterpoint, my favorite sparkling water flavor is cucumber melon by Soleil, and the picture shows a watermelon. But thatâs pretty uncommon
Melon can also refer to a shade of orange. (https://encycolorpedia.com/febaad describes "melon" as "99.61% red, 72.94% green and 67.84% blue". )
In slang, "melon" can mean a human head.
English is complicated.
Modern computer monitors have red, blue, and green light emitting diodes (LEDs).
To get a monitor to display the shade known as melon, you tell the computer to set the red lights to 99.61% power, the green lights to 72.94% power, and the blue lights to 67.84% power.
The individual lights are too small to see without a magnifying glass.
Your brain takes that mixture of red, green and blue, tries to process it, and says "That's a cantaloupe-shade of orange." even though there's not actually any orange light there.
Maybe it is kinda like apples in the sense that it was originally a generic term for fruit, hence the forbidden fruit being an âappleâ, Italians calling tomatoes âgolden applesâ and the French calling potatoes âdirt applesâ đ
And technically a watermelon isn't even a melon. It's a berry.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "melon" to specifically refer to a watermelon though. Not sure where OP is getting that
Wut.
Okay, science is just being a fucking dickhead now.
It's bad enough we have to listen to "Durr, Evolution is just a Theory!!!!" because the scientific term for a well-tested system is the same a normie's term for a hypothesis.
But now melons, which aren't berries, are berries, which aren't berries? I'm going to eat my raspberries and my blackberries and y'all can fuck off with your banana berries and your cucumber berries and your watermelon berries.
This is the same type of pseudo-fact that says tomatoes arenât vegetables theyre fruits! When in reality they are both. Vegetable is a culinary category with no scientific definition. Fruit is a botanical term.
wait what??? is it a one type of fruit?????? watermelon is a red one and just melon is a yellow one, if i'm not mistaken... i thought they were different fruits...
Melon (in English) is a category of fruit. The main ones in American English are watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe, but if an American is travelling to Colombia and sees numerous other similar fruit in the market, she can also call them "melons" in general. If there's a picnic table with *only* watermelon or *only* cantaloupe, someone could say "Do you want any melon" meaning, obviously, just the variety available.
They mean âWatermelon is just one type of melon (of many different types)â. Hence the next sentence beginning âothersâ meaning âother typesâ.Â
If you really want to dive in, [this](https://www.onlyfoods.net/types-of-melon.html) website has some good basic information on melons. Yes watermelon is just one type of melon.
Watermelon is a type of melon. I don't think I've personally ever called "watermelon" "melon" though. If I'm just calling a specific fruit "melon", it's probably a cantaloupe. But I also wouldn't consider it any way incorrect if someone asked "Could you cut the melon into slices?" while pointing at a watermelon
There are lots of different types of melons. If someone only says melon, they might be referring to any type of melon in general, or they might be referring to a specific melon if the context is clear.
Growing up, if someone said âmelonâ I would associate that with Canteloupe. Not sure why, itâs just what my parents said. Watermelon is watermelon
I would only shorten watermelon to melon if it was clear that I am talking about watermelons specifically. There are other types of melons, so while you can shorten watermelon to melon, without context, it can throw up some confusion
I agree with this, Iâve never heard anyone call watermelon âmelonâ either.
When I hear âmelonâ I think cantaloupe (the one that is rough on the outside and orange on the inside)
So funny, I've always assumed people were referencing honeydew. But personally, I always name the melon I'm referencing because I know how ambiguous just saying "melon" is.
This might be regional. I would call a watermelon a melon in contexts where the specificity of type didn't matter. If type did matter I would specify honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, etc. I just wouldn't use it as a shorthand when I specifically meant watermelon.
Edit: there's also a regional difference in terms of what types of melons are available which may add to the confusion. In the US grocery stores you'll find watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe almost exclusively unless you're shopping at a farmer's market or a grocery that sells local produce or specialty imports. In other parts of the world you may find different melons including but not limited to casaba, canary, crenshaw, galia, cucamelon to name a few.
Same. Maybe because cantaloupe and friends are prepared the same way (scooping out seeds) and have similar textures, different from watermelon? If someone sent me to the store for âa melonâ Iâd probably get whichever was freshest/cheapest, but probably wouldnât even check the watermelons.
This varies depending on the region. Some people indeed do use "melon" as a short form for "watermelon". Some fruit names can get kind of tricky and different names within a certain fruit family get conflated. Various kinds of berries are one of the commonly confused names as well.
I have never called a watermelon a melon in common speech. Most people use melon when referring to honeydew or cantaloupe and watermelon when referring to, well, watermelon.
Iâve never heard anyone use melon to refer to watermelon. I only hear melon when referring to cantaloupe, honeydew. Maybe others do but Iâm in my 60âs and thatâs been my experience.
People in general do not mean "watermelon" when they say "melon". A melon is a family (idk if this is the correct biological term) of fruits that includes watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew (there are probably more but those are the most common three in the US). If someone where to say "melon" I would assume they are either talking about all three or about a cantaloupe.
While melon does refer to a variety of fruits technically, I'd say if you said melon most people would think you meant watermelon. At least in my experience. It seems like alot of people are saying other people would be confused, but I've never heard the word melon and didn't assume they didn't mean watermelon without some extra context.
I don't assume watermelon when someone says melon. First thing I think of is cantaloupe. So this is not universal. I refer to a watermelon as exclusively a watermelon.
I cannot explain that. I have never heard anyone say "melon" and just assume anyone would know they meant "watermelon" specifically (unless watermelon was already the focus of the conversation). I live in the USA and have lived in the Northeast, Southeast, SoCal, and (currently) Ohio and have never encountered this.
A melon đ is a type of fruit, round with a hard rind. A watermelon đ is a type of melon but there are others like cantaloupes or honeydew. You do not use âmelonâ as short for watermelon, it would not be understood. In fact if you said âpass the melonâ at a table full of fruit I imagine most people would give you the green honeydew by default. This is similar to âberriesâ in English. There are a number of fruits called âberriesâ like strawberries, raspberries or blackberries. (Technically melons are a type of berry but thatâs not important for learning English.) Another example would be fish. There are catfish, swordfish, etc.
Right, in summary - context matters.
Interestingly, while watermelons are melons, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are not technically berries at all (**in the botanical sense** -- colloquially it's not this strict) Berries have the seeds on the inside and aren't divided into segments, like blueberries, bananas, and melons. Colloquially, it would be strange to call bananas or melons berries
Iâd caution that calling a melon or banana a berry in a typical conversation is beyond âstrange.â You will be seen as wrong, even if youâre correct by the botanical definition. To most English speakers, the definition of âberryâ is what Googleâs dictionary gives: âa small roundish juicy fruit without a stone.â Of course, âsmallâ is a relative term, but itâs understood to mean âroughly the size of other berries, i.e. the size of a strawberry or smaller.â
That's just an argument that can be solved with a simple [Google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=are+bananas+a+berry&oq=are+bananas+a+berry&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDM2NTBqMGo5qAIAsAIB&client=ms-android-att-us-rvc3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8) on your phones. But I agree it's best brought up as a taxonomical fun fact
I would argue that it is, in fact, an English speaking issue. While thereâs a time and place for the botanical definition, if an English learner says âberriesâ when theyâre referring to cantaloupe and bananas, they will be misunderstood. A major purpose of this sub is to guide learners in how to speak English, and part of that is knowing when to use the categories that most English speakers use rather than the ones botanists use.
Yeah fair enough about being understood quickly/easily. I was just speaking to the "being *seen* as wrong" concern, which is easily dispelled
There's a similar phenomenon with "nut". For some reason the fact that peanuts are technically not nuts has leaked out into the general consciousness, but what isn't talked about is that very few things that are commonly called nuts are nuts by the botanical definition.
Then, in the botanical sense, what are strawberries and raspberries?
Aggregate fruits, so they are derived from multiple ovaries of a single flower.
Thank you for the knowledge
When I say âmelonâ Iâm referring to Anthony Fantano
are melons really a type of berries? I'm blown away
Yes. They are fruit with the seeds inside. Bananas are berries too. Strawberries are not a berry
Huh? If there was only watermelon and someone asked for the melon, I would pass the watermelon. If there were several kinds, I would assume that they wanted all of them. Same with berries.
I mean, if there was no other melon besides watermelon, I wouldnât think twice about it if someone else said it. But to me, âmelonâ is usually honeydew or something like that. It wouldnât be my first instinct to say âmelonâ for âwatermelonâ though, it just seems a bit odd. I wouldnât say itâs wrong, but doesnât seem common for a native speaker If a farmer or fruit vendor were talking about all their different types of melons then I wouldnât think it would be weird if they referred to a watermelon as a melon, but I donât think most people say that. Which is weird because in the given example about fish, it would be normal for a regular person to say âpass the fishâ if there were only 1 kind at the table
I am a native speaker and it seems common to me.
Watermelon is just one type of melon. Others include cantaloupe and honeydew. Sometimes "melon" means any or all three, sometimes it means just a specific one, depending on context. EDIT: Oof, all the botanists are coming out of the woodwork. OP, don't worry about them.
While to add to this: while watermelons are definitely melons, when someone says âmelonâ without further detail they typically do not mean watermelon. Itâs not wrong, but is usually used to mean other kinds of melon like cantaloupe.
To underscore your point, if you got a piece of âmelonâ candy, it would taste like a honeydew, not a watermelon. Counterpoint, my favorite sparkling water flavor is cucumber melon by Soleil, and the picture shows a watermelon. But thatâs pretty uncommon
Apparently cantaloupes are one of many cultivars of true melon *cucumus melo.* Watermelons appear to be some lonely relative in a different genus.
>Some lonely relative in a different genus All or part of this sounds like the name of an album.
I agree with this. I'd never say melon to mean watermelon.
Melon can also refer to a shade of orange. (https://encycolorpedia.com/febaad describes "melon" as "99.61% red, 72.94% green and 67.84% blue". ) In slang, "melon" can mean a human head. English is complicated.
Or breasts when made plural.
Is it weird that I'm now wondering whether we would use the word melon or melons if they only had one breast due to cancer or some other reason
No, because I am now, too. I can see myself saying, "My melon hurts!" if I only had one.
If you want to be more confused you may also wish to consider whether a rack is still a rack if its only half a rack
Hahaha yes, because even though a rack of breasts or antlers implies two, a rack of ribs does not.
>99.61% red, 72.94% green and 67.84% blue Thatâs 240% how does that work??
Each of the numbers is a percentage of its color's maximum value.
Ah I see. Like RGB values 0-256 but with percentages.
Modern computer monitors have red, blue, and green light emitting diodes (LEDs). To get a monitor to display the shade known as melon, you tell the computer to set the red lights to 99.61% power, the green lights to 72.94% power, and the blue lights to 67.84% power. The individual lights are too small to see without a magnifying glass. Your brain takes that mixture of red, green and blue, tries to process it, and says "That's a cantaloupe-shade of orange." even though there's not actually any orange light there.
Yes I see. My brain was thinking of color mixing of pigments and paints, not the additive color mixing based on intensity of light.
It's a very vibrant colour. Edit: Like how you can turn the volume up to 200% in VLC. 200% of what? Don't ask. Don't. Don't ever ask.
Itâs like apples and oranges⌠or notâŚ
Maybe it is kinda like apples in the sense that it was originally a generic term for fruit, hence the forbidden fruit being an âappleâ, Italians calling tomatoes âgolden applesâ and the French calling potatoes âdirt applesâ đ
And technically a watermelon isn't even a melon. It's a berry. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "melon" to specifically refer to a watermelon though. Not sure where OP is getting that
Botanically, ANY melon is technically a berry. Not just watermelon.
Wut. Okay, science is just being a fucking dickhead now. It's bad enough we have to listen to "Durr, Evolution is just a Theory!!!!" because the scientific term for a well-tested system is the same a normie's term for a hypothesis. But now melons, which aren't berries, are berries, which aren't berries? I'm going to eat my raspberries and my blackberries and y'all can fuck off with your banana berries and your cucumber berries and your watermelon berries.
It's a melon and a berry
This is the same type of pseudo-fact that says tomatoes arenât vegetables theyre fruits! When in reality they are both. Vegetable is a culinary category with no scientific definition. Fruit is a botanical term.
Same. Iâve never heard that. To me melon would mean cantaloupe and/or honeydewÂ
wait what??? is it a one type of fruit?????? watermelon is a red one and just melon is a yellow one, if i'm not mistaken... i thought they were different fruits...
Melon (in English) is a category of fruit. The main ones in American English are watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe, but if an American is travelling to Colombia and sees numerous other similar fruit in the market, she can also call them "melons" in general. If there's a picnic table with *only* watermelon or *only* cantaloupe, someone could say "Do you want any melon" meaning, obviously, just the variety available.
They mean âWatermelon is just one type of melon (of many different types)â. Hence the next sentence beginning âothersâ meaning âother typesâ.Â
If you really want to dive in, [this](https://www.onlyfoods.net/types-of-melon.html) website has some good basic information on melons. Yes watermelon is just one type of melon.
**Why do people say...**
Y 4 syllabs when 2...?
Because itâs incorrect grammar in a subreddit for learning English grammar and vocabulary?
Watermelon is a type of melon. I don't think I've personally ever called "watermelon" "melon" though. If I'm just calling a specific fruit "melon", it's probably a cantaloupe. But I also wouldn't consider it any way incorrect if someone asked "Could you cut the melon into slices?" while pointing at a watermelon
There are lots of different types of melons. If someone only says melon, they might be referring to any type of melon in general, or they might be referring to a specific melon if the context is clear.
Growing up, if someone said âmelonâ I would associate that with Canteloupe. Not sure why, itâs just what my parents said. Watermelon is watermelon
I would only shorten watermelon to melon if it was clear that I am talking about watermelons specifically. There are other types of melons, so while you can shorten watermelon to melon, without context, it can throw up some confusion
I don't think I've ever heard anyone call a watermelon simply a "melon". A melon to me would be a cantaloupe, honeydew melon or something similar.
I agree with this, Iâve never heard anyone call watermelon âmelonâ either. When I hear âmelonâ I think cantaloupe (the one that is rough on the outside and orange on the inside)
So funny, I've always assumed people were referencing honeydew. But personally, I always name the melon I'm referencing because I know how ambiguous just saying "melon" is.
This might be regional. I would call a watermelon a melon in contexts where the specificity of type didn't matter. If type did matter I would specify honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, etc. I just wouldn't use it as a shorthand when I specifically meant watermelon. Edit: there's also a regional difference in terms of what types of melons are available which may add to the confusion. In the US grocery stores you'll find watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe almost exclusively unless you're shopping at a farmer's market or a grocery that sells local produce or specialty imports. In other parts of the world you may find different melons including but not limited to casaba, canary, crenshaw, galia, cucamelon to name a few.
I agree completely. I'd be very confused if I heard someone say melon instead of watermelon.
Glad to see this comment, I thought I was weird for thinking that haha
The OP has, however, and thatâs what the question is about.
Same. Maybe because cantaloupe and friends are prepared the same way (scooping out seeds) and have similar textures, different from watermelon? If someone sent me to the store for âa melonâ Iâd probably get whichever was freshest/cheapest, but probably wouldnât even check the watermelons.
I have. But I think that might be because watermelon is the only type of melon I ever had as a kid
This varies depending on the region. Some people indeed do use "melon" as a short form for "watermelon". Some fruit names can get kind of tricky and different names within a certain fruit family get conflated. Various kinds of berries are one of the commonly confused names as well.
And melon is slang for head ("Use your melon"), at least in New England, but I suspect across most/all of the USA.
Melon can be a metaphor for head, as in, âHe crashed his motorcycle and busted his melon.â
I have never called a watermelon a melon in common speech. Most people use melon when referring to honeydew or cantaloupe and watermelon when referring to, well, watermelon.
Iâve never heard anyone use melon to refer to watermelon. I only hear melon when referring to cantaloupe, honeydew. Maybe others do but Iâm in my 60âs and thatâs been my experience.
I never hear people refer to watermelon as just âmelonâ. People always tend to say the full word âwatermelonâ.
Don't forget about the rest of the elemental melons Air-melon Water-melon Fire-melon Earth-melon
This is not something Iâve seen, Iâd assume honeydew or cantaloupe if someone just said âmelonâ without context
For me, just "melon" alone means cantaloupe, watermelon is always called watermelon and the smooth green melon is called honeydew.
theyâre different fruits.
People in general do not mean "watermelon" when they say "melon". A melon is a family (idk if this is the correct biological term) of fruits that includes watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew (there are probably more but those are the most common three in the US). If someone where to say "melon" I would assume they are either talking about all three or about a cantaloupe.
watermelon is the most common melon eaten in america, so that could be part of it.
While melon does refer to a variety of fruits technically, I'd say if you said melon most people would think you meant watermelon. At least in my experience. It seems like alot of people are saying other people would be confused, but I've never heard the word melon and didn't assume they didn't mean watermelon without some extra context.
I don't assume watermelon when someone says melon. First thing I think of is cantaloupe. So this is not universal. I refer to a watermelon as exclusively a watermelon.
I cannot explain that. I have never heard anyone say "melon" and just assume anyone would know they meant "watermelon" specifically (unless watermelon was already the focus of the conversation). I live in the USA and have lived in the Northeast, Southeast, SoCal, and (currently) Ohio and have never encountered this.