Apricots are a sweet, sun-warmed fruit with a velvety skin and a soft, orange flesh. The word refers to the fruit in general (singular and plural) and by extension can describe the color and flavor. In linguistics, apricots is the plural form of apricot, used when talking about multiple fruits or varieties.
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"I bought a bag of fresh apricots from the market."
"Apricots pair beautifully with almonds in desserts."
"We dried apricots to snack on during the hike."
"The apricots ripened quickly in the warm sun this week."
Apricot derives from the medieval Latin praecox (early ripe fruit) via Old French abricot, which itself comes from Arabic al-burtuqāl (the orange fruit). The term entered English in the medieval period through Latin and French traders as apricot or abricot, eventually standardizing to apricot in modern use. The plural apricots follows the English noun pluralization pattern by adding -s. In many languages, the fruit is associated with warmth and sun-dried varieties, which influenced common phrases and culinary uses. Historically, apricots were prized in Persian and Central Asian cultures before spreading to the Mediterranean and Europe, where varieties and cultivation expanded, shaping both the common name and the fruit’s cultural significance. First known use in English dates to the 14th-15th centuries, with written attestations appearing in cookery and horticultural texts as apricot or abricot, gradually stabilizing into apricot for the singular and apricots for the plural. The modern form apricots emphasizes the diminutive root apri- with the plural suffix -cots, a pattern seen in early borrowing processes when native pluralization interacted with French-derived spellings.
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Words that rhyme with "apricots"
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Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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US: /ˈeɪprɪˌkɔts/ or /ˈeɪprɪˌkɑts/. Break it into a-pri-cots with primary stress on the first syllable: AY-pri-kots. Start with an open front vowel in 'ay' then a quick, unstressed 'pri' and end with a rounded 'kots' cluster. In careful speech you’ll hear the final /ɔ/ or /ɑ/ before /ts/. Audio reference: practice against a native pronunciation on Pronounce or Forvo. IPA guidance helps you place the tongue for the diphthong in the first syllable and the voiceless cluster at the end.
Common errors include over-izing the second syllable: pronouncing as a-pro-COTS with equal stress; or misplacing the initial vowel as a pure /æ/ like 'cat' instead of the /eɪ/ in 'ape'. To correct: set primary stress on the first syllable /ˈeɪ/ and keep the second syllable reduced (ɪ) before the /k/; ensure the final cluster is /kɔts/ or /kɑts/ without an extra vowel. Practice with minimal pairs like /ˈeɪprɪˌkɔts/ vs /ˈæprɪˌkɔts/ to hear the difference.
US tends to use /ˈeɪ.prə.kɔts/ or /ˈeɪ.prɪ.kɔts/ with a reduced second syllable and non-rhotic trailing /ts/; UK often uses /ˈæprɪ.kɒts/ with flatter first vowel and stronger /ɒ/ in the second syllable; Australian commonly aligns with UK values but can show vowel merging in the final /ɔː/ vs /ɒ/ depending on region. Stress usually remains on the first syllable; rhythm is trochaic. Listen for the subtle shift in the second syllable vowel and the final consonant crispness.
The difficulty centers on the diphthong in the first syllable /eɪ/ and the final consonant cluster /kɔts/ or /kɑts/, which can blur in rapid speech. Non-native speakers often merge the second syllable or substitute /ɒ/ for /ɔ/ in certain dialects. Also, the plural marker adds complexity: apricot becomes apricots with an extra /s/ sound that can affect voicing and place of articulation if not careful. Practice exact mouth positioning and slow practice helps.
The key feature is the strong initial diphthong in the stressed syllable and the rapid transition to the /k/ onset of the final syllable. The presence of the /t/ before the /s/ in the plural makes the ending /ts/ cluster. Some speakers then voice the /s/ differently in connected speech. The unique combination of /ˈeɪ/ + /prɪ/ + /kɔts/ makes apricots notably rhythmically distinct.
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