vanilla
Other forms: vanillas
Vanilla is the flavor for food — such as ice cream — that contains extract from the vanilla plant. This word also describes things that are boring or plain.
If something is called vanilla — such as coffee or a milkshake — it's usually flavored with vanilla extract or the seeds from a vanilla pod. Vanilla is the most common flavor of ice cream. This word has another, slightly insulting, meaning: a vanilla movie is plain and kind of boring. A vanilla song is on the blah side. Maybe it's because vanilla food tends to be white and plain that we use this word for other things that are bland.
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any of numerous climbing plants of the genus Vanilla having fleshy leaves and clusters of large waxy highly fragrant white or green or topaz flowers
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types:
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Vanilla planifolia, vanilla orchid
a climbing orchid bearing a podlike fruit yielding vanilla beans; widely cultivated from Florida southward throughout tropical America
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type of:
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orchid, orchidaceous plant
any of numerous plants of the orchid family usually having flowers of unusual shapes and beautiful colors
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Vanilla planifolia, vanilla orchid
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a flavoring prepared from vanilla beans macerated in alcohol (or imitating vanilla beans)
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synonyms:
vanilla extract
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a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla beans
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flavored with vanilla extract“he liked vanilla ice cream”
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plain and without any extras or adornments“the most common type of bond is the straight or plain vanilla bond”“the basic car is known as the vanilla version”
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Synonyms:
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plain
not elaborate or elaborated; simple
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plain
/vəˈnɪlə/
/vəˈnɪlə/
Vocabulary lists containing vanilla
Harry Potter now has children of his own, but when his son Albus begins school at Hogwarts, it seems that the past is returning to haunt them both.
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