what is a tomato?

Answer 1

Botanically it is a fleshy fruit or berry because it contains seeds within a fleshy pericarp developed from the flower's ovary.
http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/rost/Tomato/Reproductive/anat.html

Answer 2

Tomato is a fruit. The plants belongs to the family Solanaceae. Botanical name of the plant is Lycopersicum esculentum.

Answer 3

a tomato is a vegetable and a fruit
What is a Tomato?

A tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, a vine which in its wild state is a resilient perennial with an indefinite life span that can grow as tall as a telephone pole or as wide as a row of Cadillacs. It is a member of the nightshade or Solanaceae family, a cousin of the eggplant, pepper, potato, ground cherry, tomatillo, and the highly toxic belladonna, also known as deadly nightshade. All tomatoes belong to the genus Lycopersicon, which means "wolf peach".


Tomatoes come in a variety of sizes, colors, and textures. Tiny currant tomatoes—red or yellow—are best eaten right off the vine or used as garnish. Cherry tomatoes—white, pink, pale yellow, bright orange, deep red, or green—are ideal raw in salads and salsas, grilled on skewers, or cooked simply as a side dish. Larger cherry tomatoes with a low percentage of water make delicious dried tomatoes. Plum tomatoes are well-suited for sauces, soups, stews, jams, and chutneys, and, because of their dense flesh, for drying. Slicing tomatoes, which include everything from the intensely-flavored stupice, about 2—2 1/2" in diameter, to the often enormous beefsteak and oxheart tomatoes (heirloom varieties currently enjoying a renaissance) are ideal for slicing as well as for salsas, sauces, and soups, although they often need draining or longer cooking because of their high water content.



Copyright 1996 by Michele Anna Jordan, author of the Good Cook's Book of Tomatoes. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.



The Good Cook's Online Guide to Tomatoes,
by Michele Anna Jordan
The Perfect Tomato
What is a Tomato?
Preserving the Harvest
Commercial Tomatoes
Commercial Tomato Products
Tomatoes and Health
Tomatoes in the Kitchen
How to Peel a Tomato
To Fix a Thin Sauce
The Well Stocked Pantry
About Michele Anna Jordan
Tomato Recipes:
Tomato Granita with Serrano Peppers
Tomato Bruschetta with Six Variations
Tomato Toast
Tomato Pie
Gazpacho
Tomato-Cilantro Soup
Pasta with Uncooked Summer Tomato Sauce
Baked Cherry Tomatoes
Fried Green Tomatoes with Cream, Bacon, & Cilantro
Sliced Tomato Salad with Ten Variations
Salsa
About Canning Tomatoes


Michele Anna Jordan's books, including The Good Cook's Series (on Mustard, Tomatoes and Oil & Vinegar) are available at bookstores nationwide, or they may be ordered from Katz and Company at 800-455-2305; fax [phone].
hope i helped
btw thats an interesting question

Answer 4

a tomato is a fruit anda vegetable. i got the defintions off of dictionary.com and when giving their examples tomato was included in both so it is in fact both.

2.fruit-the developed ovary of a seed plant with its contents and accessory parts, as the pea pod, nut, tomato, or pineapple.
1.vegetable-any plant whose fruit, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food, as the tomato, bean, beet, potato, onion, asparagus, spinach, or cauliflower.

and my science teacher said it was both too

Answer 5

If your asking if its a fruit or a vegetable then in botany its a fruit - the seed bearing organ of the plant.

Answer 6

this messes with me. everyone says its a fruit but its not sour or sweet like a fruit and it isnt in fruit salad its put into veg. salads so it is a fruit that people eat as a vegetable.

Answer 7

fruit anything that has seeds is a fruit besides peppers squash and pickles stuff like that

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

Answer 9

people think it's a vegetable but it's actually a fruit

Answer 10

A red vegetable that is used to make spaghetti sauce and ketchup.