Fruit vs Vegetable - Difference and Comparison

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	Fruit	Vegetable
Introduction (from Wikipedia):	The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened ovaries of flowering plants.	The term "vegetable" generally means the edible parts of plants. But the definition is traditional rather than scientific, so the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs.

1 Definitions
- 1.1 Fruit
- 1.2 Vegetable
2 Technically speaking
3 Differences in popular usage
4 Examples of fruits and vegetables
5 Related Articles

[edit] Definitions

[edit] Fruit

noun

the developed ovary of a seed plant with its contents and accessory parts, as the pea pod, nut, tomato, or pineapple.
the edible part of a plant developed from a flower, with any accessory tissues, as the peach, mulberry, or banana

[edit] Vegetable

noun

A plant cultivated for an edible part, such as the root of the beet, the leaf of spinach, or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower.

[edit] Technically speaking

A fruit is the (often sweet and fleshy) part of a plant that surrounds the seeds. They are thus the ripened ovaries of the plant.

All other edible plant parts are considered vegetables. A vegetable is an herbaceous plant cultivated for an edible part.

[edit] Differences in popular usage

Most people categorize "vegetables" as foods that are eaten as part of a meal's main course and "fruits" as foods that are eaten for dessert or as a snack.

Most fruits are sweet because they contain a simple sugar called fructose, while most vegetables are less sweet because they have much less fructose. The sweetness of fruit encourages animals to eat it and thereby spread the seeds.