A berry is a small, juicy fruit that grows on certain plants and bushes. Strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are berries you might eat for breakfast or bake into muffins. Wild berries grow in forests and fields, and humans have gathered them for food since prehistoric times.

Interestingly, what scientists call a berry doesn't always match what we call a berry in everyday life. To a botanist, a true berry is a fruit that develops from a single flower and has seeds embedded in its flesh. By this definition, grapes, tomatoes, and even bananas are berries, while strawberries and raspberries technically aren't. Strawberries are called “aggregate fruits” because they form from a flower with many ovaries, and their seeds sit on the outside rather than inside.

For most purposes, though, you can safely call any small, round, juicy fruit a berry without worrying about the scientific definition. When you pick berries at a farm or buy them at a grocery store, you're using the word the way most people do. Just remember that if a botanist ever tells you a watermelon is technically a berry, they're not joking.