vanilla - Dictionary definition and pronunciation - Yahoo! Education
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va·nil·la  audio  (v-nl) KEY 

NOUN:
  1. Any of various tropical American vines of the genus Vanilla in the orchid family, especially V. planifolia, cultivated for its long narrow seedpods from which a flavoring agent is obtained.
  2. The seedpod of this plant. Also called vanilla bean.
  3. A flavoring extract prepared from the cured seedpods of this plant or produced synthetically.
ADJECTIVE:
  1. Flavored with vanilla: vanilla pudding.
  2. Lacking adornments or special features; basic or ordinary: "We went through a period of vanilla cars" (Charles Jordan).
ETYMOLOGY:
Obsolete Spanish vainilla, diminutive of vaina, sheath (from the shape of its seedpods), from Latin vgna


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