quince
quince Lexical Profile
quince Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A hard, aromatic, bright golden-yellow pome fruit resembling a lumpy pear, produced by a deciduous tree of the rose family and typically cooked to make jams, jellies, and pastes due to its astringent, acidic raw flesh.
"She simmered the sliced quince with sugar and water until the fruit turned a deep ruby red."
A small deciduous tree (Cydonia oblonga) in the rose family (Rosaceae), native to the Caucasus and southwestern Asia, cultivated for its pale pink blossoms and fragrant yellow pome fruit.
"We planted a young quince in the sunny corner of the orchard."
Any of several ornamental spiny shrubs of the genus Chaenomeles in the rose family, native to East Asia and widely cultivated as garden flowers for their showy clusters of scarlet, pink, orange, or white five-petaled blossoms that bloom in early spring.
"The bright red blossoms of the ornamental quince brought early color to the spring garden."
• Rhymes for quince
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Originally the plural of Middle English 'quoyn', borrowed from Old French 'cooin', which derives via Latin 'cotoneum' from Ancient Greek 'kydonion melon' ('Cydonian apple'), named after Cydonia, an ancient city on the island of Crete.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.