noun
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a person who works in or takes care of a garden as an occupation or pastime
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any bowerbird of the genus Amblyornis
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
After an employer refused to give him full wages for working as a one-handed gardener, Byfield declared: 'I never saw the man that would compete with me with one arm'.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026
Amy was a philanthropist and renowned gardener who had bonded with her father over the art of picking produce; Diane worked in the office doing residential leasing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
She is now an enthusiastic gardener, and one of thousands of young people sharing their green-fingered ways on social media.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
"I think there's only so much stress they can withstand," said the gardener, who tends 1,800 trees.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
The gardener was clipping away at the bougainvillea, taming the flowers that defiantly stuck out of the leveled top.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
For the gardeners: At first, they look like unassuming sprouts.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
English summers are increasingly marked by a once rare ritual: water companies imposing monthslong bans on the use of garden hoses, leaving a nation of gardeners to hand-water their gardens or watch their plants die.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
When that happens, gardeners may want to consider whether they are using too much fertilizer.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
It is not practicable to water mature trees, gardeners explained.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
And I was the student at Stanford who remembered to notice the Mexican-American janitors and gardeners working on campus.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
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.
