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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Legume


LEG'UME,

LEGU'MEN, noun [Latin legumen, lego to collect, and signifying that which collects, or holds, or a collection.]

1. In botany, a pericarp or seed-vessel, of two valves, in which the seeds are fixed to one suture only. In the latter circumstance it differs from a siliqua, in which the seeds are attached to both sutures. In popular use, a legume is called a pod, or a cod; as a pea-pod, or peas-cod.

2. In the plural, pulse, peas, beans, etc.