flower

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English [edit]

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Pink cactus flowers in bloom.

Alternative forms [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

From Middle English flour, from Anglo-Norman flur, from Latin flōrem, accusative of flōs, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃ (“to thrive, bloom”). Replaced Middle English blosme, blossem (“flower, blossom”) (more at blossom).

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

flower (plural flowers)

  1. A colorful, conspicuous structure associated with angiosperms, frequently scented and attracting various insects, and which may or may not be used for sexual reproduction.
    • 1597, De Campo, Don Richardo de Medico The Trimming of Thomas Nashe Gentleman
      How frail a flower thou doſt ſo highly a prize:/Beauty's the flower, but love the flower-pot/That muſt preſerve it, els it quickly dyes.
  2. (botany) A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens and/or a pistil.
    • 1894, H. G. Wells, The Flowering of the Strange Orchid
      You know, Darwin studied their fertilisation, and showed that the whole structure of an ordinary orchid flower was contrived in order that moths might carry the pollen from plant to plant.
  3. A plant that bears flowers, especially a plant that is small and lacks wood.
    We transplanted the flowers to a larger pot.
  4. (usually with in) Of plants, a state of bearing blooms.
    The dogwoods are in flower this week.
  5. (euphemistic, hypocoristic) The vulva, especially the labia majora.
    • 1749, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure Part 2
      that my virgin flower was yet uncrop'd, never enter'd into his head, and he would have thought it idling with time and words to have question'd me upon it
  6. (idiomatic) The best examples or representatives of a group.
    We selected the flower of the applicants.
  7. The best state of things; the prime.
    She was in the flower of her life.
  8. (obsolete) Flour.
Quotations [edit]

For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

Usage notes [edit]

In its most common sense as "a colorful conspicuous structure", the word flower includes many structures which are not anatomically flowers in the botanical sense. Sunflowers and daisies, for example, are structurally clusters of many small flowers that together appear to be a single flower (a capitulum, a form of pseudanthium), but these are considered to be flowers in the general sense. Likewise, the botanical definition of flower includes many structures that would not be considered a flower by the average person, such as the catkins of a willow tree or the downy flowers found atop a cattail stalk.

Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
reproductive structure in angiosperms
plant that bears flowers, especially a plant that is small and lacks wood

Verb [edit]

flower (third-person singular simple present flowers, present participle flowering, simple past and past participle flowered)

  1. To put forth blooms.
  2. To reach a state of full development or great achievement.
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to put forth blooms

Related terms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

See also [edit]

Etymology 2 [edit]

to flow + -er

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

flower (plural flowers)

  1. Something that flows, such as a river.

Anagrams [edit]

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