vegetation

See also: Vegetation and végétation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French végétation, from Medieval Latin vegetātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌvɛd͡ʒəˈteɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

vegetation (countable and uncountable, plural vegetations)

1. (uncountable) Plants, taken collectively.

   Synonym: verdure

   There were large amounts of vegetation in the forest.

   • 1838, William Andrus Alcott, chapter I, in The Young House-keeper: Or, Thoughts on Food and Cookery‎^[1], third stereotype edition, Boston: George W. Light, page 21:

     Thus the growth of vegetation, though effected in a greater or less degree by the strong wind, the violent rain, and the heat and glare of the noonday sun, is yet still more effectually promoted by the mild action of the gentler breezes, the softly descending dew, and the less intense heat.

   • 1880 November 6, Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin, chapter XII, in The Power of Movement in Plants‎^[2], page 555:

     As soon as the faintest ray of light reaches a seedling, heliotropism will guide it through any crack in the soil, or through an entangled mass of overlying vegetation; […]

   • 1951 August, Albert Watts Moore, Elbert Hann Reid, “The Dalles Pocket Gopher and Its Influence on Forage Production of Oregon Mountain Meadows”, in Circular‎^[3], number 884, Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Agriculture, →DOI, →OCLC, page 11:

     Similarity of vegetation on meadows was the result of heavy grazing and trampling by large numbers of driveway sheep before the study was begun.

   • 2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[4], volume 188, number 22, archived from the original on 13 October 2026, page 30:

     As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast.

2. (pathology, countable and uncountable) An abnormal mass on an endocardial surface, especially a heart valve, composed chiefly of fibrin and platelets and often containing microorganisms.
3. (pathology, countable, dated) An excrescent, verrucous or fibrinous growth on a mucosal or epithelial surface.
4. The act or process of vegetating, or growing as a plant does; vegetable growth.

Derived terms

• devegetation
• macrovegetation
• microvegetation
• palaeovegetation
• paleovegetation
• prevegetation
• revegetation
• undervegetation
• vegetational
• vegetationless
• vegetation of salts

Translations

plants

• Albanian: bimësi (sq) f
• Arabic: خُضْرَة f (ḵuḍra), عَشَابَة f (ʕašāba), نَبَات (ar) m (nabāt), نَبَاتَات pl (nabātāt), مَخْضَرَة f (maḵḍara)
• Armenian: բուսականություն (hy) (busakanutʻyun)
• Asturian: vexetación f
• Belarusian: раслі́ннасць f (raslínnascʹ)
• Breton: struzh m
• Bulgarian: расти́телност f (rastítelnost)
• Catalan: vegetació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 植被 (zh) (zhíbèi), 草木 (zh) (cǎomù)

• Czech: porost (cs) m, vegetace (cs) f
• Danish: plantevækst c, vegetation (da) c
• Dutch: vegetatie (nl) f, begroeiing (nl) f
• Esperanto: vegetaĵaro
• Estonian: taimkate
• Faroese: gróður m
• Finnish: kasvillisuus (fi)
• French: végétation (fr) f
• Galician: vexetación (gl) f
• Georgian: მცენარეულობა (mcenareuloba), ვეგეტაცია (vegeṭacia)
• German: Vegetation (de) f, Pflanzenwuchs (de) m
• Greek: βλάστηση (el) f (vlástisi)
• Hebrew: צוֹמֵחַ (he) m (tsomeakh)
• Hindi: वनस्पति (hi) m (vanaspati)
• Hungarian: vegetáció (hu)
• Icelandic: gróður (is) m
• Indonesian: pertanaman (id), vegetasi (id)
• Italian: vegetazione (it) f
• Japanese: 草木 (ja) (くさき, kusaki), 植生 (ja) (しょくせい, shokusei)
• Korean: 식생 (ko) (siksaeng), 초목 (ko) (chomok)
• Latin: vegetātiō f
• Latvian: augājs m
• Lithuanian: augalija f
• Macedonian: вегетација f (vegetacija)
• Malay: vegetasi
• Māori: raurēkau, mauti, māheuheu
• Navajo: chʼil, tsin
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: vegetasjon m

• Occitan: vegetacion (oc) f
• Polish: roślinność (pl) f
• Portuguese: vegetação (pt) f
• Romanian: vegetație (ro) f
• Russian: расти́тельность (ru) f (rastítelʹnostʹ)
• Sardinian: matédu m, matéri m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: вегета́ција f, ра́слӣње n

  Latin: vegetácija (sh) f, ráslīnje (sh) n

• Slovak: vegetácia f, porast m
• Slovene: rastlinstvo (sl) n
• Spanish: vegetación (es) f
• Swahili: uoto (sw)
• Swedish: vegetation (sv) c
• Tagalog: kahalmanan, kahalamanan, behetasyon
• Tatar: үсемлек (tt) (üsemlek)
• Turkish: vejetasyon (tr), bitki örtüsü (tr), yeşillik (tr), nebatat (tr)
• Ukrainian: росли́нність (uk) f (roslýnnistʹ)
• Vietnamese: cây cối (vi), cây cỏ (vi), thực vật (vi)
• Volapük: planem, planaglof (vo)
• Welsh: llystyfiant m
• Yiddish: גרינסן n pl (grinsn)

Danish

Etymology

From Medieval Latin vegetātiō.

Noun

vegetation c (singular definite vegetationen, plural indefinite vegetationer)

1. vegetation

   Synonym: plantevækst

Declension

Declension of vegetation

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	vegetation	vegetationen	vegetationer	vegetationerne
genitive	vegetations	vegetationens	vegetationers	vegetationernes

Derived terms

• bundvegetation

See also

• flora

References

• “vegetation” in Den Danske Ordbog

Swedish

Noun

vegetation c

1. vegetation

   Synonyms: växtlighet, växtliv

   tät vegetation

   dense vegetation

Declension

Declension of vegetation

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	vegetation	vegetations
	definite	vegetationen	vegetationens
plural	indefinite	vegetationer	vegetationers
	definite	vegetationerna	vegetationernas

Declension

• “vegetation”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “vegetation”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “vegetation”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)