ageratum
Americannoun
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any of several composite plants of the genus Ageratum, especially A. houstonianum, having heart-shaped leaves and small, dense, blue, lavender, or white flower heads, often grown in gardens.
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any of various other composite plants, as the mistflower, having blue or white flowers.
noun
Etymology
Origin of ageratum
1560–70; < New Latin; Latin agēraton < Greek agḗraton, neuter of agḗratos unaging, equivalent to a- a- 6 + gērat- (stem of gêras ) old age + -os adj. suffix
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.
Taking a different approach, Entomologist William Bowers, of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, has isolated two substances from ageratum, a flowering plant, that interfere with an insect's production of juvenile hormones.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Often one sees a border of ageratum about such a one.
From The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. by Shaw, Ellen Eddy
Annuals.—African daisy, ageratum, aster, calendula, calliopsis, balsam, candytuft, cornflower, cosmos, marigold, mignonette, nasturtium, petunia, poppy, stock, sweet alyssum, sweet-pea, verbena, zinnia, annual phlox, red sunflower, cut-and-come-again sunflower.
From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Science in Rural Schools by Ontario. Ministry of Education
The soft blue tufts of the ageratum were on each side continually.
From Bonaventure A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana by Cable, George Washington
Almost all the bedding plants, like the geranium, begonia, ageratum, lobelia, etc., have white species.
From The Garden, You, and I by Wright, Mabel Osgood
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.