apple

Example sentences

• "She ate an apple for lunch."

  Level A1

• "There is an old apple tree in our garden."

  Level A1

• "My grandmother bakes the best apple pie."

  Level A1

• "The farmer picked the ripe apples in autumn."

  Level A2

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• pear : A pear is a fruit with a rounded bottom and a narrow top. An apple is rounder and firmer.
• orange : An orange has a thick, bright peel and juicy segments. An apple has thin skin and crisp flesh.

Word family and forms

Forms: apples

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "apple".

• an apple tree
• apple pie
• apple juice
• a red apple
• pick an apple
• a bad apple

Idioms and phrases

the apple of someone's eye

A person who is loved very much.

"His daughter is the apple of his eye."

a bad apple

One person who is bad and may spoil the rest.

"One bad apple can spoil the whole team."

Origin

Apple comes from Old English aeppel, and the word is found in the same shape in many related languages, such as Dutch appel and German Apfel. English has had the word since before the year 900. In older English it could also mean any round fruit.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Apple starts with the very first letter, A. An apple is often the first picture in a child's alphabet book.

Test yourself

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