flower
Americannoun
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the blossom of a plant.
She picked a bunch of flowers for her mother.
He always wore a flower in his lapel, usually a carnation.
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Botany.
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the part of a seed plant comprising the reproductive organs and their envelopes if any, especially when such envelopes are more or less conspicuous in form and color.
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an analogous reproductive structure in other plants, as the mosses.
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a plant considered with reference to its blossom or cultivated for its floral beauty.
If it doesn’t rain today, I’ll need to water the flowers in the garden.
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an ornament or decoration representing a flower.
She doesn’t like any fabric that has flowers on it.
The classroom walls were decorated with cheery flowers painted by the children.
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an ornament or adornment.
I felt like I was being told to be just a flower, but I wanted to have input and share my ideas.
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Also called fleuron, floret. Printing. an ornamental piece of type, especially a stylized floral design, often used in a line to decorate chapter headings, page borders, or bindings.
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the choicest or finest part, member, or example.
Emigration took the flower of the nation’s youth, desperate for a better life.
It was a love poem, calling her “the flower of humanity” and other romantic epithets.
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the bud of the cannabis or hemp plant, or such buds collectively, secreting over 100 different cannabinoids.
For testing purposes, you only need to bring in one cannabis flower for analysis.
This is high-quality cannabis flower, with 12 to 18 percent THC.
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(used with a singular verb) flowers, a substance in the form of a fine powder, especially as obtained by sublimation.
flowers of sulfur.
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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to decorate with a floral design.
The skirt of the dress is flowered.
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to cover or deck with flowers.
For the wedding photos, they flowered the church steps with roses.
idioms
noun
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a bloom or blossom on a plant
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a plant that bears blooms or blossoms
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the reproductive structure of angiosperm plants, consisting normally of stamens and carpels surrounded by petals and sepals all borne on the receptacle (one or more of these structures may be absent). In some plants it is conspicuous and brightly coloured and attracts insects or other animals for pollination
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any similar reproductive structure in other plants
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the prime; peak
in the flower of his youth
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the choice or finest product, part, or representative
the flower of the young men
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a decoration or embellishment
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printing a type ornament, used with others in borders, chapter headings, etc
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Also called: fleuron. an embellishment or ornamental symbol depicting a flower
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(plural) fine powder, usually produced by sublimation
flowers of sulphur
verb
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(intr) to produce flowers; bloom
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(intr) to reach full growth or maturity
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(tr) to deck or decorate with flowers or floral designs
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The reproductive structure of the seed-bearing plants known as angiosperms. A flower may contain up to four whorls or arrangements of parts: carpels, stamens, petals, and sepals. The female reproductive organs consist of one or more carpels. Each carpel includes an ovary, style, and stigma. A single carpel or a group of fused carpels is sometimes called a pistil. The male reproductive parts are the stamens, made up of a filament and anther. The reproductive organs may be enclosed in an inner whorl of petals and an outer whorl of sepals. Flowers first appeared over 120 million years ago and have evolved a great diversity of forms and coloration in response to the agents that pollinate them. Some flowers produce nectar to attract animal pollinators, and these flowers are often highly adapted to specific groups of pollinators. Flowers pollinated by moths, such as species of jasmine and nicotiana, are often pale and fragrant in order to be found in the evening, while those pollinated by birds, such as fuschias, are frequently red and odorless, since birds have good vision but a less developed sense of smell. Wind-pollinated flowers, such as those of oak trees or grass, are usually drab and inconspicuous.
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See Note at pollination
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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flowersimple
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flowerssimple
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have floweredperfect
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has floweredperfect
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am floweringprogressive
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are floweringprogressive
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is floweringprogressive
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have been floweringperfect progressive
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has been floweringperfect progressive
Past
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floweredsimple
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had floweredperfect
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was floweringprogressive
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were floweringprogressive
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had been floweringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of flower
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English flour “flower, best of anything,” from Old French flor, flour, flur, from Latin flōr-, stem of flōs; see also bloom 1 ( def. ), flour
Explanation
If someone tells you they think you'll flower when you go to college, they don't mean they think you'll grow blossoms on your head, but that you'll really come into your own and find your potential. A flower is a fragile blossom that has petals and grows at the top of the stem of a plant. Flowers attract bees, who help out with the pollination process so more plants can grow. Roses, daisies, and carnations are all types of flowers. Flower is also a verb meaning to bring forth flowers. And if something besides a plant — a business, a person, a community — has a period of extra productivity or prosperity, we say it is flowering.
Vocabulary lists containing flower
Plants (Botany) - Introduction
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Plants (Botany) - Middle School
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Plants (Botany) - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
They have nothing except each other, their love symbolized by a red flower that Orpheus offers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
The RHS flower show has replaced the annual Sandringham Flower Show, after the estate agreed the RHS could host a horticultural show once every three years at the site.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
RHS manager says new flower show is 'affordable'
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
A rare corpse flower, known for its massive size and foul stench, will bloom for just 24 to 48 hours.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
The tall pine tree that I could spot a block away to lead me home, the flower bed Dad killed every year, the Visionary sitting on the front porch...
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
The Reserve is more substantial, with flavors of lemon curd, white flowers and toasted nuts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Attendees of the vigil laid flowers at the crosses in a makeshift cemetery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
A lab-raised monkey, born without a fear of snakes, can be taught to fear them—but not to fear flowers, a difference that suggests an inherited readiness to learn a survival strategy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
In its defence the restaurant owner argued that just 60% of diners had opted to try the ants, while the rest were served alternatives like fermented vinegar and edible flowers.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Lovely pastel flowers and leaves covered his arms right down to his wrists.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
A veil rested on their heads, held by a satin flowered headband.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Each generation of banana plants had to grow for at least 12 months before researchers could test them for disease resistance and continue breeding once they flowered.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 19, 2026
In just two minutes, the movie had delivered everything it promised: a snorting monkey, a sucker in a flowered shirt, a shot of an ominous tire swing and a closeup of a peeled cheekbone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2026
The titan arum first flowered outside of Sumatra in 1889 in Kew.
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2025
Even in a flowered dress, she is lost in a sea of pinstripes and gray suits, high heels and elegant short skirts, Reebok sneakers, dashing from building to building.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
They grow in both a leaf stage, when they resemble small trees, and in a rare flowering stage that may have gaps of several years or even a decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Though many refer to these plants as “flowers,” they are actually an “inflorescence,” a flowering structure containing hundreds of smaller blooms inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
"There were no vertebrates, no trees, no leaves, no flowering plants, no plants with seeds," Marek said.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 14, 2026
According to Tim Upson, its Director of Gardens and Horticulture, the cherry blossom at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey has finished flowering, while the tulip displays are nearing the end of their peak.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026
They had waited nearly an hour on the sidewalk for their table and then feasted on flowering chives and salted squid and the clams in black bean sauce that Maxine loved best.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
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.
