Definition of "bitternut" [bit•ter•nut]

• A hickory tree (Carya cordiformis) of eastern North America, having thin-shelled nuts with bitter kernels. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The name bitternut may safely be allowed to remain with Carya cordiformis because the other two nuts with bitter pellicle already have distinctive names, Carya aquatica being called water hickory and Carya texana being called bitter pecan."
• "Yet as a root system, the bitternut is the hardiest and easiest to transplant of any of the hickories and for these reasons it makes an ideal stock for the amateur nut-grower to use."
• "Widespread dominants are white oak, red oak, black oak, bitternut hickory, and shagbark hickory."