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vanilla

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Vanilla

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish vainilla, a diminutive form of vaina (“pod”). "Plain" senses derive from the perceived plainness of vanilla ice cream.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /vəˈnɪl.ə/, /vəˈnɛl.ə/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Indic) IPA(key): /vɛˈnɪl(ː)ɑ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪlə, -ɛlə

Noun

vanilla (countable and uncountable, plural vanillas)

  1. (countable) Any tropical climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.
    • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 242:
      Vanilla itself was transplanted from Madagascar, the main source of the spice, to Polynesia a century ago.
  2. (countable) The fruit or bean of the vanilla plant.
    Synonym: vanilla bean
  3. (uncountable) The extract of the fruit of the vanilla plant.
    Synonym: vanilla extract
  4. (uncountable) The distinctive fragrant flavour/flavor characteristic of vanilla extract.
  5. (uncountable) Any artificially produced homologue of vanilla extract, principally vanillin produced from lignin from the paper industry or from petrochemicals.
    Synonym: imitation vanilla
  6. (countable, sexuality, slang) Someone who is not into fetishism.
  7. (uncountable, gaming, slang) An unmodded version of a game.
    Synonym: stock
  8. A yellowish-white colour, like that of vanilla ice cream.
    vanilla:  

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Maori: wanira

Translations

See also

Adjective

vanilla (comparative more vanilla, superlative most vanilla)

  1. (of flavor, etc.) Of vanilla.
  2. (colloquial, chiefly computing, retronym) Standard, plain, default, unmodified, basic.
    vanilla JavaScript
    • 2001, Michael Foot, “BeebIt 0.32 and BBCFiles 0.29 released”, in comp.sys.acorn.announce (Usenet):
      BBCFiles is a BBC file converter that converts between some of the various types of files used by BBC emulators on Acorn & PC formats. It supports 6502Em style applications & scripts, /ssd dfs disc images (supporting watford double catalogue), vanilla directories, /zip of bbc files with /inf files (with limitations) and directory of bbc files with /inf files.
  3. (sexuality) Not kinky, not involving BDSM.
    Synonym: normophilic
    • 2006, Felix Lance Falkon, Gay Art: A Historic Collection, →ISBN, page 136:
      An uncharacteristically vanilla threesome and non-cute realist rendering - derived paradoxically from tracing drawings rather than photographs.
    • 2010, Chloe Stowe, Hard Water, →ISBN, page 37:
      While Dominick was more of a vanilla kind of a guy himself, he wasn't a total dunce when it came to the kinkier sides of things.
    • 2014, Christina Thacher, The Negotiation: A BDSM Romance, →ISBN:
      Sebastian could never do that, be in a marriage with a vanilla woman.
  4. Plain; conventional; unimaginative.
    • 2024 August 19, Josh Kaplan, “Why are Jews expected to put up with rampant social media antisemitism?”, in The Jewish Chronicle‎, London: Jewish Chronicle Media Limited, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 October 2025:
      The further right or left you go, the more likely you are to eventually come around to hating Jews. On the left, this is plain to see. From the Corbyn-era trend to attack Israel for all the world's sins, to the self-hating asaJews that tweeted enthusiastically about October 7 being a 'day of celebration' to previously vanilla comedian Reginald Hunter retweeting posts about the evils of the Talmud.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

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Icelandic

Etymology

Borrowed from English vanilla, from Spanish vainilla, diminutive of vaina (“pod”), from Latin vāgīna (“sheath”).

Pronunciation

Noun

vanilla f (genitive singular vanillu, no plural) or less commonly
vanilla n (genitive singular vanilla, no plural)

  1. (usually singular only, uncountable) vanilla

Declension

More information singular, indefinite ...

or less commonly

More information singular, indefinite ...

Derived terms

  • vanilluplanta
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