Library / English Dictionary

BITTERWEED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous chiefly North American weedy plants constituting the genus Ambrosia that produce highly allergenic pollen responsible for much hay fever and asthma

Synonyms:

ambrosia; bitterweed; ragweed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("bitterweed" is a kind of...):

weed (any plant that crowds out cultivated plants)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "bitterweed"):

Ambrosia artemisiifolia; common ragweed (annual weed with finely divided foliage and spikes of green flowers; common in North America; introduced elsewhere accidentally)

Ambrosia trifida; great ragweed (a coarse annual with some leaves deeply and palmately three-cleft or five-cleft)

Ambrosia psilostachya; perennial ragweed; western ragweed (coarse perennial ragweed with creeping roots of dry barren lands of southwestern United States and Mexico)

Holonyms ("bitterweed" is a member of...):

genus Ambrosia (comprising the ragweeds; in some classification considered the type genus of a separate family Ambrosiaceae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Widespread European weed with spiny tongue-shaped leaves and yellow flowers; naturalized in United States

Synonyms:

bitterweed; bristly oxtongue; bugloss; oxtongue; Picris echioides

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("bitterweed" is a kind of...):

weed (any plant that crowds out cultivated plants)

Holonyms ("bitterweed" is a member of...):

genus Picris; Picris (genus of weedy Old World yellow-flowered herbs usually containing a bitter-tasting substance: bitterweed)

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