lily

See also: Lily

English

A lily plant

Wikipedia

Etymology

Old English lilie, from Latin līlia, plural of līlium, from Ancient Greek λείριον (leírion), from Coptic (dial. Fayyumic) ϩⲗⲏⲣⲓ (hlēri), variant of ϩⲣⲏⲣⲉ (hrēre), from Demotic (ḥrry), from Egyptian

ḥrr.t (ḥereret) 'flower'. Perhaps also the root of Sanskrit हली/हलिनी (halI/halinI), both also meaning lily.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪli/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪli

Noun

lily (plural lilies)

1. Any of several flowers in the genus Lilium of the family Liliaceae, which includes a great many ornamental species.
2. Any of several species of herbaceous flower which may or may not resemble the genus Lilium in some way, and which are not closely related to it or each other.
3. The end of a compass needle that should point north, traditionally often ornamented with the figure of a lily or fleur-de-lis.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Thomas Browne

     But sailing further, it veers its lily to the west.

Derived terms

Derived terms

arum lily belladonna lily calla lily cobra lily day lily Easter lily fawn lily lily of the field Mariposa lily

palm lily rock lily spider lily star lily tiger lily trout lily water lily

Translations

flower in the genus Lilium

• Albanian: zambak
• Arabic: زنبق m (zánbaq), سوسن (sawsan)
• Armenian: շուշան (šušan)
• Belarusian: лілія f (lílija)
• Bulgarian: лилия f (lílija), крем (bg) m (krem)
• Catalan: lliri m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 百合 (zh) (bǎihé), 百合花 (zh) (bǎihéhuā)

• Czech: lilie (cs) f
• Danish: lilje c
• Dutch: lelie (nl) m, f
• Faroese: lilja f
• Finnish: lilja (fi)
• French: lys (fr) m
• Georgian: შროშანი (šrošani)
• German: Lilie (de) f
• Greek: κρίνο (el) (kríno)
• Hebrew: שׁוֹשַׁנָּה (šōšannā)
• Hindi: कुमुदिनी (kumudinī)
• Hungarian: liliom (hu)
• Icelandic: lilja (is) f
• Indonesian: bunga bakung
• Italian: giglio (it) m
• Japanese: ユリ (yuri), 百合 (ゆり, yuri)
• Korean: 나리 (ko) (nari), 백합 (ko) (baek-hap)

• Latin: līlium (la) n
• Lithuanian: lelija f
• Maltese: Ġilju
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lilje (no) m, f

  Nynorsk: lilje f

• Old Norse: lilja f
• Persian: سوسن (fa) (sousan)
• Polish: lilia (pl) f
• Portuguese: lírio (pt) m
• Romanian: crin (ro) m, lilie f
• Russian: лилия (ru) f (lílija), крин (ru) m (krín)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: љиљан m, замбак m, крин m

  Roman: ljiljan m, zambak m, krin m

• Slovak: ľalia f
• Spanish: azucena f
• Swedish: lilja c
• Tajik: сӯсан (süsan), савсан (savsan)
• Tamil: பலுக்கல் (ta) (palukkal)
• Turkish: zambak (tr)
• Ukrainian: лілeя f (liléja)
• Vietnamese: hoa bách hợp
• Volapük: (plant) lelaplan, lel (vo), (older term) liäf

Adjective

lily (not comparable)

1. (slang, derogatory) White (as a racial epithet).
   • 1994, Colleen Faulkner, Captive

     "Can't you see I'm trying to save your lily ass?" "I don't want to be saved," Tess moaned as he hauled her up and into his lap with one beefy hand.

Anagrams

• illy
• yill