Mint
A term with diverse meanings across plants, coins, and culture.
Mint is a term with a wide range of meanings, spanning botany, finance, popular culture, and commerce. In the natural world, it refers primarily to the genus Mentha, a group of aromatic plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family, which is itself often called the mint family. Beyond its botanical sense, the word denotes a facility where coins are manufactured, a usage that extends to the concept of “mint condition,” describing an object in a state of like-new quality. This duality of meaning—fresh herb and industrial site—reflects the term’s deep historical roots.
The term also appears extensively in arts and entertainment. In music, there is a Belgian band named Mint, a Thai singer based in South Korea known as Mint, and a record label called Mint Records. Albums titled Mint include works by Alice Merton, Meiko Nakahara, and Alexkid with Liset Alea, while songs titled “Mint” have been released by Namie Amuro, Rina Aiuchi, Lindsay Ell, and Misako Uno. Earl Sweatshirt’s song “The Mint” appears on his album Some Rap Songs. In film and television, Mint is a Japanese drama, while The Mint is a 2015 American comedy. Game shows named The Mint aired in Australia and Britain, and a British crime drama series titled Mint is scheduled for 2026. Fictional characters named Mint appear in the video game Threads of Fate, the board game Candy Land (as Mr. Mint), the series Ranma ½, Tales of Phantasia (Mint Adnade), Tokyo Mew Mew (Mint Aizawa), Galaxy Angel (Mint Blancmanche), and as the independent VTuber Mint Fantôme.
In business and technology, Mint refers to a personal financial management website and app (Intuit Mint, formerly Mint.com), a mobile virtual network operator (Mint Mobile), a former Spanish airline (Mint Airways), a hotel and casino in Las Vegas (The Mint Las Vegas, operating from 1957 to 1989), a premium cabin service by JetBlue (JetBlue Mint), and a robot by Evolution Robotics. The term also appears in computing as a discontinued web analytics software, an operating system for the Atari ST (MiNT), and the Linux distribution Linux Mint. Publications include the Indian business newspaper Mint and T. E. Lawrence’s book The Mint.
Quick Facts
- Notable uses
- Mentha (mint plant)
- Mint (facility)
- Mint condition
- Linux Mint
- Mint (newspaper)
- Mint Mobile
Facts from the source article.
Background
The term 'Mint' primarily refers to the genus Mentha of plants in the mint family Lamiaceae. It also denotes a facility for manufacturing coins and the condition 'mint condition' meaning like-new quality. In arts and entertainment, Mint appears as a character in the video game Threads of Fate, Mr. Mint in Candy Land, and various other fictional entities such as Mint Adnade in Tales of Phantasia and Mint Blancmanche in Galaxy Angel. In music, Mint is a Belgian band, a Thai singer, and a record label, as well as multiple albums and songs. In literature, Mint is a business newspaper in India and The Mint is a book by T. E. Lawrence. Businesses include Mint (restaurant) in Dublin, Intuit Mint (formerly Mint.com), Mint Mobile, and The Mint Las Vegas hotel and casino. In computing, Mint is a discontinued web analytics software, MiNT is an operating system for the Atari ST, and Linux Mint is a Linux distribution. Places include Mint, Arizona; Liberty of the Mint in London; River Mint in England; and the Sydney Mint in Australia. Other uses include mint candy, the MINT economics acronym for Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey, and a shade of spring green.
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