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ripe

adjective · noun · verb

Simple meaning

Vegetable, seed, etc., ready for reaping or gathering.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ryp
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹaɪp

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Of a fruit, vegetable, seed, etc., ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature.

  2. figuratively

    Having attained its full development; mature; perfected.

  3. Of a food, advanced to the state of fitness for use; mellow.

  4. Ready for action or effect; prepared.

  5. Smelly: having a disagreeable odor.

  6. colloquial

    Ofa person, ready, willing, eager.

noun

  1. The bank of a river.

  2. A tuberculosis treatment regimen consisting of rifampicin (R), isoniazid (I), pyrazinamide (P), and ethambutol (E).

verb

  1. intransitive

    To ripen or mature.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of a fruit, vegetable, seed, etc., ready for reaping or gathering; having attained perfection; mature.

Used this way, ripe is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • mellow , more formal, and heavier in everyday conversation

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use ripe

  • “The bananas were perfectly ripe and sweet, ready for eating.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Fruit

ripe tomato

Fully

fully ripe

Other combinations

ripe fruitripe agenow riperipe tomatoesnearly riperipe corn

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • ripe olivenounCompound term

    Olives picked ripe and cured in brine then dried or pickled or preserved canned or in oil.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: of a fruit or vegetable or seed or etc

mellowFormalripened

Antonyms

Sense: of a fruit or vegetable or seed or etc

unripe

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.