Library / English Dictionary

MILKWEED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Annual Eurasian sow thistle with soft spiny leaves and rayed yellow flower heads

Synonyms:

milkweed; Sonchus oleraceus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

milk thistle; sow thistle (any of several Old World coarse prickly-leaved shrubs and subshrubs having milky juice and yellow flowers; widely naturalized; often noxious weeds in cultivated soil)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of numerous plants of the genus Asclepias having milky juice and pods that split open releasing seeds with downy tufts

Synonyms:

milkweed; silkweed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)

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

Asclepias albicans; white milkweed (tall herb with leafless white waxy stems and whitish starlike flowers; southwestern United States)

Asclepias curassavica; blood flower; swallowwort (tropical herb having orange-red flowers followed by pods suggesting a swallow with outspread wings; a weed throughout the tropics)

Asclepias exaltata; poke milkweed (milkweed of the eastern United States with leaves resembling those of pokeweed)

Asclepias incarnata; swamp milkweed (densely branching perennial of the eastern United States with white to crimson or purple flowers)

Asclepia meadii; Asclepias meadii; Mead's milkweed (milkweed of central North America; a threatened species)

Asclepias purpurascens; purple silkweed (perennial of eastern North America having pink-purple flowers)

Asclepias speciosa; showy milkweed (milkweed of southern North America having large starry purple and pink flowers)

Asclepias subverticillata; horsetail milkweed; poison milkweed (milkweed of southwestern United States and Mexico; poisonous to livestock)

Asclepias tuberosa; butterfly weed; chigger flower; chiggerflower; Indian paintbrush; orange milkweed; pleurisy root; tuber root (erect perennial of eastern and southern United States having showy orange flowers)

Asclepias verticillata; whorled milkweed (milkweed of the eastern United States with narrow leaves in whorls and greenish-white flowers)

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

Asclepias; genus Asclepias (genus of chiefly North American perennial herbs: silkweed; milkweed)

Credits