English
pecan
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /piːˈkɑːn/ (pronunciation used by 32% of speakers in the US; common everywhere except New York, New England and the coastal Southeast)
  • IPA: /pɪˈkɑːn/ (used by 23% of speakers in the US, mostly in the southern Midwest; also used in the UK)
  • IPA: /ˈpiːkæn/ (used by 14% of speakers in the US, common in New York, New England and the coastal Southeast; also used in the UK, Australia, and Canada)
  • IPA: /ˈpiːkɑːn/ (used by 13% of speakers in the US, mostly in the Upper Midwest)
  • IPA: /piːˈkæn/ (used by 7% of speakers in the US, not common in any region; also used in Canada, Australia and New Zealand)
  • IPA: /ˈpɪkæn/ (used almost exclusively in coastal New England, and not the most common pronunciation even there)
  • IPA: /pəˈkɔːn/, /pɪˈkɔːn/ (used in Louisiana)
  • IPA: /pəˈkɑːn/ (sometimes used in the US when the word is unstressed)
  • IPA: /pɪˈkæn/ (used in the UK and Canada; also used by some US speakers)
  • IPA: /ˈpiːkən/ (used in the UK, Australia and New Zealand)
  • IPA: /pəˈkɒn/ (used in Canada)
Noun

pecan (plural pecans)

  1. A deciduous tree, Carya illinoinensis, of the central and southern United States, having deeply furrowed bark, pinnately compound leaves, and edible nuts.
    • 1885, Howard Seely, A Ranchman's stories, page 154:
      And away on the farther bank, a motte of huge pecans, standing like giant sentinels over the dwarfed landscape, filled the eye with remote vistas in their shady, twilight aisles. It was very still.
    • 1978 April, in the Texas Monthly, page 51:
      Within its ornamental fence, the 8/10-acre property includes several of the largest live oaks in the area — plus huge pecans and stately magnolias.
  2. A smooth, thin-shelled, edible oval nut of this tree.
    • 1982, Beth Henley, Crimes of the heart, page 17:
      MEG. […] (Meg takes out two pecans and tries to open them by cracking them together.) Come on ... Crack, you demons! Crack!
      LENNY. We have a nutcracker!
      MEG. (Trying with her teeth.) Ah, where's the sport in a nutcracker? Where's the challenge?
  3. A half of the edible portion of the inside of this nut.
    • 2005, in The Condensed Encyclopedia of Healing Foods (Joseph Pizzorno, Lara Pizzorno; Atria Books, ISBN 978-0-7434-7402-3:
      Each shell contains two pecans, usually plump and oblong in shape, although some varieties are round or pointed.
Translations
  • French: pacanier
  • German: Pekannussbaum
  • Portuguese: nogueira-pecã
  • Russian: пека́н
  • Spanish: pacano, pecán, pacana
Translations

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