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tropical

adjectivenouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈtɹɒp.ɪ.kəl//
  • United States//ˈtɹɑ.pɪ.kəl//
  • Canada//ˈtɹɒp.ɪ.kəl//
  • Australia//ˈtɹɔp.ɪ.kəl//

Of or pertaining to the tropics, the equatorial region between 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or pertaining to the tropics, the equatorial region between 23 degrees north and 23 degrees south.

  2. 2

    From, or similar to, a hot, humid climate.

    We've had a lot of tropical nights this summer.

    My favorite tropical fruits are pineapples and coconuts.

    Whale sharks are found in all the tropical waters of the world. As with many tropical species, an occasional stray wanders into colder waters.

  3. 3

    datedPertaining to, involving, or of the nature of a trope or tropes; figurative, metaphorical.

    But we, by the real spiritual presence of Christ, do understand Christ to be present, as the Spirit of God is present in the hearts of the faithful, by blessing and grace; and this is all which we mean besides the tropical and figurative presence.

    The foundation of all parables is some analogy or similitude between the tropical or allusive part of the parable and the thing intended by it.

  4. 4

    Pertaining to tropical geometry.

Etymology

Etymology tree English tropic Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English tropical From tropic + -al.

noun

  1. 1

    A tropical plant.

    The potato, as a mountain tropical plant, is capable of growing in cooler weather than any other tropical except the Nasturtian.

Forms

plural
tropicals
comparative
more tropical
superlative
most tropical
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).