Plural of carpel; the female reproductive parts of a flower that contain the ovules and develop into fruit after pollination.
From carpel (from Greek karpos, 'fruit') plus the standard English plural -s. The term emerged in botanical nomenclature during the 18th century as botanists studied flower reproduction systematically.
A strawberry is technically not a fruit—it's the receptacle that expands, while the actual fruits are the tiny seeds and their carpels! So when you eat strawberry 'seeds,' you're eating individual carpels.
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