noun
-
a person who works in or takes care of a garden as an occupation or pastime
-
any bowerbird of the genus Amblyornis
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of gardener
1250–1300; Middle English < Old North French gardinier ( Old French jardinier ). See garden, -er 2
Explanation
A person whose hobby or job is growing flowers in a garden is called a gardener. If you want homegrown flowers and veggies, get to know a gardener. If you grow vegetables professionally, you're called a farmer, but if you design, tend, or care for a flower garden, you're a gardener. Planting anything on a small scale, in your own backyard, also makes you a gardener. The word gardener was a common last name starting in the 13th century, from the Old French jardineor, and the Old North French gardin, "kitchen garden or orchard."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When she and her gardener sheet-mulched the front yard with cardboard Amazon boxes she had collected from her neighbors in October, one neighbor joked that it looked ready for Halloween.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
Their garden now includes a greenhouse, a pond, hedges, raised beds and plenty of roses, with some of the design inspired by fellow gardener and author Alan Titchmarsh.
From BBC • May 28, 2026
I forget about it, given I am not a gardener.
From Salon • May 9, 2026
In “Chasing Lewis’s Monkeyflower,” Elizabeth Adelman, a gardener and heritage-plant expert, mounts a search for Lewis’s lost plants.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026
When I'd asked about the gardener, no one had seen him.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
