n 1 a  :  VANILLA BEAN  b  :  a commercially important extract of the vanilla bean that is prepared by soaking comminuted vanilla beans in water and ethyl alcohol and that is used esp. as a flavoring (as in pharmaceutical preparations)  2  :  any of a genus (Vanilla) of tropical American climbing orchids .
 
   
 
Similar sounding terms:  fen·nel  fun·nel  phe·nol  phe·nyl 
 
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