Library / English Dictionary

RAGWEED

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 ("ragweed" is a kind of...):

weed (any plant that crowds out cultivated plants)

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

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 ("ragweed" 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 having yellow daisylike flowers; sometimes an obnoxious weed and toxic to cattle if consumed in quantity

Synonyms:

benweed; ragweed; ragwort; Senecio jacobaea; tansy ragwort

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

weed (any plant that crowds out cultivated plants)

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

genus Senecio; Senecio (enormous and diverse cosmopolitan genus of trees and shrubs and vines and herbs including many weeds)

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