Fruits That End With Um: The Complete List
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The answer almost everyone is looking for is plum. If you need a fruit that end with um, plum is the only common everyday English fruit name that fits, and everything else on the list is either a plum-named fruit from a different botanical family, like Kakadu plum or coco plum, or a scientific genus name such as Vaccinium or Syzygium. Below is the full working list, plus how to tell a real plum from a fruit that just borrowed the name.
The short list of fruits ending in "um"
English is stingy with this ending. The letters "um" usually show up in Latin loanwords, which is why most of the matches come from botany rather than the produce aisle. Here is the practical list:
- Plum, the true answer and a member of the genus Prunus.
- Damson plum, a small tart plum used for jam.
- Greengage plum, a green, honey-sweet European plum.
- Beach plum, a coastal North American plum.
- Cherry plum, also called myrobalan.
- Sugar plum, a name used for small sweet plums and for old-fashioned candied treats.
- Kakadu plum, an Australian fruit famous for its vitamin C content.
- Davidson plum, another Australian native with deep red flesh.
- Illawarra plum, a blue-black fruit from an Australian conifer.
- Java plum, also called jamun or jambolan.
- Natal plum, a South African shrub fruit.
- Coco plum, a coastal tropical fruit found in Florida and the Caribbean.
- Hog plum, a tart yellow tropical fruit.
- Sorghum, technically a grain, and grains are botanically fruits, so puzzle setters sometimes accept it.
If a quiz only wants one word, write plum and move on. If it wants five, the plum-named fruits above will carry you.
Plum: the fruit that actually earns the ending
A true plum belongs to the genus Prunus, the same family branch as cherries, peaches, apricots, and almonds. The giveaway is the single hard stone in the center and the thin, waxy, often dusty-looking skin. Plums range from tiny and mouth-puckering to fist-sized and syrupy, and a medium fresh plum runs around 30 calories with roughly 1 gram of fiber.
Dry that plum and it becomes a prune, which is worth noting because the drying process changes the texture completely. A prune is chewy and concentrated rather than juicy, which is the same principle behind chewy dried vegetable snacks. If you are curious how drying affects produce in general, we broke it down in are dried fruits and vegetables healthy.
Plums in name only
Half the fruits above are not plums at all. Early botanists and colonists had a habit of pointing at any small round stone fruit and calling it a plum, which is how one word ended up spread across four continents and several unrelated plant families. Here is how the main ones compare.
| Name | True plum (Prunus)? | Where it grows | Typical size | Flavor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| European plum | Yes | Europe, North America | 4 to 6 cm | Sweet, honeyed |
| Damson plum | Yes | Europe, UK | 2 to 3 cm | Tart, best cooked |
| Beach plum | Yes | US Atlantic coast | 1 to 2 cm | Tart, jammy |
| Kakadu plum | No | Northern Australia | 2 cm | Sharp, citrusy |
| Java plum (jamun) | No | South and Southeast Asia | 2 to 3 cm | Astringent, grapey |
| Natal plum | No | Southern Africa | 3 to 5 cm | Sweet-tart, milky sap |
| Coco plum | No | Caribbean, Florida | 2 to 4 cm | Mild, cottony |
| Illawarra plum | No | Eastern Australia | 1 to 2 cm | Piney, resinous |
Botanical names that end in um
If your puzzle allows scientific names, the list opens up fast, because Latin neuter nouns love that ending:
- Vaccinium, the genus of blueberries, cranberries, bilberries, and lingonberries.
- Syzygium, the genus of rose apple, jamun, and cloves.
- Solanum, the genus of tomato, eggplant, and tamarillo.
- Chrysophyllum, the genus of star apple or caimito.
- Antidesma relatives and Physalis cousins often appear in this ending too, depending on the classification you use.
One fun aside for the trivia crowd: the tomato's full species name, Solanum lycopersicum, ends in "um" twice over, which makes it a technically correct if slightly obnoxious answer.
What about vegetables and roots?
Vegetables do a little better with this ending. Allium covers onions, garlic, leeks, and chives. Rheum is the genus of rhubarb, which is a vegetable that behaves like a fruit. Sweet potato does not end in "um," but its botanical name, Ipomoea batatas, gets asked about often enough that we cover the whole plant, its varieties, and its history in our complete sweet potato guide.
Sweet potato is worth mentioning here for a different reason. When plums are dried into prunes, people reach for them partly for the chew and partly for the fiber, and sweet potato lands in similar territory. A cooked sweet potato brings meaningful fiber along with its natural sweetness, which we walk through in detail in our post on how much fiber is in a sweet potato. If you are tracking fiber or sugar for a specific health reason, talk with your doctor or a registered dietitian about the right targets for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is plum the only fruit that ends in um?
It is the only single-word, everyday English fruit name that ends in "um." Every other match either includes the word plum, such as Kakadu plum or coco plum, or is a botanical genus name like Vaccinium or Syzygium. For most crossword and quiz purposes, plum is the expected answer.
Does sorghum count as a fruit?
Botanically, a grain is a type of dry fruit called a caryopsis, so sorghum has a defensible claim. In everyday language nobody calls sorghum a fruit, so it depends on how strict the puzzle is. Offer plum first and sorghum as a backup.
Is a prune a fruit that ends in um?
No, prune ends in "ne." A prune is simply a dried plum, usually from specific European plum varieties bred for drying. The fresh version ends in "um" and the dried version does not, which is a nice bit of trivia on its own.
What is the Kakadu plum and is it really a plum?
The Kakadu plum is an Australian native fruit from the genus Terminalia, so it is not related to true plums at all. It is known for an unusually high vitamin C concentration and a sharp, citrus-like flavor, and it is most often sold as a powder or preserve rather than eaten fresh.
Are there vegetables that end in um?
Yes, mostly through Latin genus names. Allium covers onions and garlic, Rheum covers rhubarb, and Brassicaceae members are often listed under names ending in "um" at the species level. Sweet potato is not one of them, though it does end up in plenty of word games for other reasons.
Chewy like a plum, made from sweet potato
If reading about dried plums made you want something chewy, that is exactly the space Yammy lives in. Our snack is made from real sweet potato, sliced into sticks and dried until the texture lands somewhere close to a fruit leather, soft enough to tear and dense enough to actually feel like food. It is never deep-fried, it is naturally vegan and gluten-free, and each serving brings 4g of fiber and 3g of protein.
The Original, Salt & Pepper, and Sriracha flavors have no added sugar, so the sweetness you taste is the sweet potato doing its own work. Browse the full lineup of sweet potato sticks and pick a flavor for your next puzzle session, road trip, or afternoon slump.