Dictionary

vanilla en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /vəˈnɪl.ə/
• /vəˈnɛl.ə/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wāgīnā Latin vāgīna Old Spanish vayna Spanish vaina Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Latin -ella Old Spanish -iella Spanish -illa Spanish vainillabor. English vanilla Borrowed from Spanish vainilla, a diminutive form of vaina (“pod”). "Plain" senses derive from the perceived plainness of vanilla ice cream.

Meanings

1. (of flavor, usually) Of vanilla.
   • A mass of folders and binders. One, vanilla in colour, catches her eye. 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN:
2. (colloquial, retronym) Standard, plain, default, unmodified, basic.
   • vanilla JavaScript
   • BBCFiles is a BBC file converter that converts between some of the various types of files used by BBC emulators on Acorn & PC formats. It supports 6502Em style applications & scripts, /ssd dfs disc images (supporting watford double catalogue), vanilla directories, /zip of bbc files with /inf files (with limitations) and directory of bbc files with /inf files. 2001, Michael Foot, “BeebIt 0.32 and BBCFiles 0.29 released”, in comp.sys.acorn.announce (Usenet):
3. Not kinky, not involving BDSM.
   • While Dominick was more of a vanilla kind of a guy himself, he wasn't a total dunce when it came to the kinkier sides of things. 2010, Chloe Stowe, Hard Water, →ISBN, page 37:
   • An uncharacteristically vanilla threesome and non-cute realist rendering - derived paradoxically from tracing drawings rather than photographs. 2006, Felix Lance Falkon, Gay Art: A Historic Collection, →ISBN, page 136:
   • Sebastian could never do that, be in a marriage with a vanilla woman. 2014, Christina Thacher, The Negotiation: A BDSM Romance, →ISBN:
4. Plain; conventional; unimaginative.
   • a vanilla rendition of the concerto
   • The further right or left you go, the more likely you are to eventually come around to hating Jews. On the left, this is plain to see. From the Corbyn-era trend to attack Israel for all the world's sins, to the self-hating asaJews that tweeted enthusiastically about October 7 being a 'day of celebration' to previously vanilla comedian Reginald Hunter retweeting posts about the evils of the Talmud. 2024 August 19, Josh Kaplan, “Why are Jews expected to put up with rampant social media antisemitism?”, in The Jewish Chronicle, London: Jewish Chronicle Media Limited, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Oct 2025:

Forms

Relateds

jellybean · vanillin

Synonyms

vanillar · normophilic

Translations (23)

ru вани́льный (of vanilla) · io vanilala (of vanilla) · it alla vaniglia (of vanilla) · ru обы́чный (standard) · fr standard (standard) · el βασικός (standard) · el κανονικός (standard) · sv vanilj- (of vanilla) · fi vaniljainen (of vanilla) · fi vanilja- (of vanilla) · nv doo ádíláahgo naanéego (not kinky, not involving BDSM) · fr de vanille (of vanilla) · el απλός (standard) · fr classique (standard) · fr à la vanille (of vanilla) · es vainillado (of vanilla) · fi tavallinen (standard) · it vanigliato (of vanilla) · nv doo ádíláahgo jikʼeedgo (not kinky, not involving BDSM) · it di vaniglia (of vanilla) · nl vanille- (of vanilla) · bg ванилов (of vanilla) · fi vanilja- (standard)

vanilla en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /vəˈnɪl.ə/
• /vəˈnɛl.ə/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wāgīnā Latin vāgīna Old Spanish vayna Spanish vaina Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Latin -ella Old Spanish -iella Spanish -illa Spanish vainillabor. English vanilla Borrowed from Spanish vainilla, a diminutive form of vaina (“pod”). "Plain" senses derive from the perceived plainness of vanilla ice cream.

Meanings

1. (countable) Any tropical climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.
   • Vanilla itself was transplanted from Madagascar, the main source of the spice, to Polynesia a century ago. 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 242:
2. (countable) The fruit or bean of the vanilla plant.
3. (uncountable) The extract of the fruit of the vanilla plant.
4. (uncountable) The distinctive fragrant flavour/flavor characteristic of vanilla extract.
5. (uncountable) Any artificially produced homologue of vanilla extract, principally vanillin produced from lignin from the paper industry or from petrochemicals.
6. (countable, slang) Someone who is not into fetishism.
7. (slang, uncountable) An unmodded version of a game.
8. (countable, uncountable) A yellowish-white colour, like that of vanilla ice cream.
9. (countable, derogatory, ethnic, slur, uncountable) A white person.

Forms

Deriveds

vanillic · vanillery · Cuban vanilla · vanilla wafer · vanillalike · vanilla leaf · vanillism · banilla · nonvanilla · vanillaness · vanilla grass · vanillafied · vanillaed · vanillar · vanilla-like · vanillafy · vanilla extract · vanilla-y · plain vanilla · vanilla submarine · vanilla slice · vanilla essence · imitation vanilla · vanillatte · vanilla bean

Descendants

vanilla · wanira

Relateds

flavour extract

Synonyms

stock · vanilla extract · vanilla bean · imitation vanilla

Translations (191)

bg ванилия (flavor) · tl baynilya (artificial extract) · nb vanilje (orchid) · kk ваниль (orchid) · acw فنيليا (flavor) · id vanili (fruit) · nrf vanille (artificial extract) · yue 雲尼拿香油 /云尼拿香油 (natural extract) · tl baynilya (fruit) · sv vaniljorkidé (orchid) · it vaniglia (orchid) · yue 雲呢拿 /云呢拿 (fruit) · nah tlilxochitl (orchid) · gl vainilla (flavor) · ro vanilie (fruit) · eu banilla (fruit) · th ฝักวานิลลา (fruit) · sw lavani (flavor) · ru вани́ль (flavor) · arq ڥاني (flavor) · tl baynilya (flavor) · tr vanilya (orchid) · fi vanilja (orchid) · ka ვანილი (flavor) · tr vanilya (artificial extract) · cs vanilka (fruit) · bg ванилия (natural extract) · yue 香草 (fruit) · kk ваниль (flavor) · ko 바닐라 (fruit) · fr vanille (artificial extract) · io vanilo (fruit) · pl wanilia (orchid) · sv vaniljstång (fruit) · qu waynilla (fruit) · ka ვანილი (orchid) · id vanila (natural extract) · ar ڤَانِيلَّا (flavor) · mg amalo (fruit) · ro vanilie (orchid) · es vainilla (natural extract) · es vainilla (flavor) · he וניל (orchid) · ja バニラ (flavor) · vi vanilla (fruit) · yi וואַנילע (natural extract) · kmr vanîlya (fruit) · fi vanilliini (artificial extract) · mg vanila (fruit) · ko 바닐라 (flavor) · ru вани́ль (natural extract) · gv vanilley (natural extract) · cmn 香草精 (natural extract) · ca vainilla (fruit) · ka ვანილი (natural extract) · gl vainilla (natural extract) · ky ваниль (fruit) · sv vanilj (flavor) · gv vanilley (flavor) · de Vanille (flavor) · nrf vanille (fruit) · es vainilla (fruit) · dsb wanilja (flavor) · is vanillujurt (orchid) · es vainilla (orchid) · id vanili (orchid) · it vaniglia (fruit) · th วานิลลา (flavor) · nb vanilje (flavor) · az vanil (fruit) · tr vanilya (fruit) · mk вани́ла (artificial extract) · tr vanilya (flavor) · el βανίλια (orchid) · cs vanilka (flavor) · mk вани́ла (fruit) · ca vainilla (natural extract) · ga fanaile (natural extract) · kk ваниль (fruit) · yi וואַנילע (fruit) · ms vanila (fruit) · eo vanilo (fruit) · fr vanille (fruit) · vi vani (fruit) · is vanilla (natural extract) · is vanilja (flavor) · sh ванила (fruit) · yi וואַנילע (orchid) · de Vanille (fruit) · cmn 香草 (flavor) · sl vanilja (fruit) · hy վանիլ (natural extract) · az vanil (artificial extract) · az vanil (natural extract) · hy վանիլ (artificial extract) · ja バニラ (fruit) · ceb baynilya (fruit) · pl wanilia (natural extract) · nb vaniljeessens (natural extract) · de Vanille (natural extract) · cs vanilka (orchid) · sh ванилија (fruit) · nrf vanille (natural extract) · da vanilje (fruit) · eo vanilo (natural extract) · yi וואַנילע (flavor) · mk вани́ла (orchid) · sh vanilija (fruit) · io vanilo (artificial extract) · ar وَنِيلِيَّة (flavor) · es vainilla (artificial extract) · gl vainilla (fruit) · is vanilla (flavor) · nb vanilje (fruit) · ca vainilla (flavor) · pt baunilha (fruit) · my သစ်ခွရည် (natural extract) · id vanili (natural extract) · gl vainilla (artificial extract) · eo vanilo (orchid) · aeb ڥَانِي (flavor) · km វ៉ានីឡា (flavor) · he וניל (natural extract) · ru вани́ль (fruit) · tr vanilya (natural extract) · gl vainilla (orchid) · fi vaniljatanko (fruit) · is vanilja (fruit) · fi vaniljauute (natural extract) · io vanilo (orchid) · az vanil (orchid) · tl baynilya (natural extract) · is vanilja (artificial extract) · yue 雲呢拿 /云呢拿 (flavor) · sh vanila (fruit) · sw mvanila (orchid) · nci tlīlxōchitl (orchid) · fr vanille (natural extract) · el βανίλια (flavor) · is vanilla (artificial extract) · hu vanília (fruit) · arz ڤانيليا (flavor) · id vanila (flavor) · is vanilla (fruit) · dsb wanilja (natural extract) · pt baunilha (artificial extract) · ru вани́ль (orchid) · it vanillina (flavor) · th วานิลลา (orchid) · mi wanira (flavor) · eo vanilo (flavor) · fr vanille (orchid) · yue 香草 (flavor) · el βανίλια (artificial extract) · to vanila (fruit) · az vanil (flavor) · ca vainilla (orchid) · sv vanilj (orchid) · de Vanille- (flavor) · cmn 香草 (fruit) · nci tlīlxōchitl (fruit) · ka ვანილი (artificial extract) · arq ڥاني (orchid) · nrf vanille (orchid) · dsb wanilja (fruit) · ur ایک خوشبو (fruit) · hy վանիլ (flavor) · cmn 香子蘭 /香子兰 (orchid) · el βανίλια (fruit) · pl wanilia (flavor) · mg amalo (orchid) · tl baynilya (orchid) · hu vanília (flavor) · fr vanille (flavor) · ar ڤَانِيلِيَا (flavor) · sw vanila (flavor) · nl vanille (flavor) · ru вани́ль (artificial extract) · kk ваниль (natural extract) · hu vanília (orchid) · fo vanilja (natural extract) · fi vanilja (flavor) · pt baunilha (orchid) · ka ვანილი (fruit) · mk вани́ла (flavor) · el βανίλια (natural extract) · pt baunilha (flavor) · pt baunilha (natural extract) · bg ванилия (fruit) · nci tlīlxōchitl (natural extract) · is vanilja (natural extract)