Is a tomato a fruit or vegetable?

[elles-belles]

I suppose this might seem like a simple enough question to answer and some people might probably say it is an obvious one but I am still unsure about this.
Is a tomato a fruit or a veggie?
I have done some research on this and have found some explanation as to why a tomato is a fruit but I just wish to refine it more if possible.
Can someone please try and give me their answer and explain why they say it is a fruit or why it is a veggie? I've always thought it to be a vegetable in all honesty.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Technically it is actually a fruit as is a cucumber, a bell pepper and several others because they contain the seeds of the plant in order for it to reproduce. However, we generally regard them as a vegetable because of the way we use them and because they are not particularly sweet like apples or pears which tend to be the culinary definition (sweet or savoury).

Botanically speaking, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant, whereas vegetables are all other plant parts, such as roots, leaves and stems. By those standards, seedy outgrowths such as apples, squash and, yes, tomatoes are all fruits, while roots such as beets, potatoes and turnips, leaves such as spinach, kale and lettuce, and stems such as celery and broccoli are all vegetables

The outlook is quite different in culinary terms, however. A lot of foods that are (botanically speaking) fruits, but which are savory rather than sweet, are typically considered vegetables by chefs. This includes such botanical fruits as eggplants, bell peppers and tomatoes.

It actually resulted in the US supreme court stepping into the augment back in the 1890's to rule on whether a tomato was a fruit or vegetable.

 

[Caribbean girl]

Technically it is actually a fruit as is a cucumber, a bell pepper and several others because they contain the seeds of the plant in order for it to reproduce

I myself have always regarded a tomato as a vegetable and have always used it as such. The same goes for cucumbers and bell peppers. However, I would hear some people refer to the tomato as a fruit, and I could never get accustomed to thinking of it that way. Well I now know that the reason it is called a fruit is because it contains the seed of the plant in order for it to reproduce which is also the case with the cucumber and bell pepper. Considering this, I actually eat more fruit than I had originally thought. Whenever I mix tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce together, I call it a vegetable salad.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I myself have always regarded a tomato as a vegetable and have always used it as such. The same goes for cucumbers and bell peppers. However, I would hear some people refer to the tomato as a fruit, and I could never get accustomed to thinking of it that way. Well I now know that the reason it is called a fruit is because it contains the seed of the plant in order for it to reproduce which is also the case with the cucumber and bell pepper. Considering this, I actually eat more fruit than I had originally thought. Whenever I mix tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce together, I call it a vegetable salad.

Aubergine, courgette, marrows are all more fruits technically! As are sweetcorn, all beans in their pods, peas in pods, trying to think what else: basically anything that grows from the germinated flower of a plant! However once you shell the beans and peas, they should in theory be called seeds! It is a confusing world that we live in!

 

[elles-belles]

Technically it is actually a fruit as is a cucumber, a bell pepper and several others because they contain the seeds of the plant in order for it to reproduce. However, we generally regard them as a vegetable because of the way we use them and because they are not particularly sweet like apples or pears which tend to be the culinary definition (sweet or savoury).

Alright, this makes a lot more sense! Thank you for the insight.

 

[DancingLady]

To me it is a vegetable. It looks like s vegetable, grows like a vegetable and the flavor is compatible with vegetables and totally clashed with fruit.