Is a Coconut a Nut, Seed or Fruit?

A coconut is all of these: a seed, a fruit, and a nut! Coconut is a seed because it is the reproductive part of the tree, coconut is a fruit because it is a fibrous one-seeded drupe, and coconut is a nut because a loose definition of a nut is nothing but a one-seeded ‘fruit’.

The word “coconut” is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word ‘coco,’ which means ‘skull’ or ‘head.’ It got its name from the uncanny similarity of the three indentations with the facial features of a human being. Coconut trees belong to the Arecaceae family, better known as the palm family.