alfalfa

American  

[al-fal-fuh] / ælˈfæl fə /

noun

• alfalfas
  plural

1. a plant, Medicago sativa, of the legume family, usually having bluish-purple flowers, originating in western Asia and widely cultivated as a forage crop.

---

alfalfa British  

/ ælˈfælfə /

noun

1. Also called: lucerne. a leguminous plant, Medicago sativa, of Europe and Asia, having compound leaves with three leaflets and clusters of small purplish flowers. It is widely cultivated for forage and as a nitrogen fixer and used as a commercial source of chlorophyll

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• alfalfas
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of alfalfa

First recorded in 1835–45; from Spanish, variant of alfalfez, from Spanish Arabic al “the” + faṣfaṣah from Persian ispist “lucerne”

---

Explanation

Alfalfa is a plant that's often grown to feed livestock. Hay is commonly made from the dried alfalfa plant. Alfalfa is a flowering perennial, a plant that returns every year, although it's best known as food for dairy cattle and other livestock animals. When the plant is harvested and dried, it's often made into hay, and it's a popular feed because it's high in protein. If you're not a farmer, you may be most familiar with the sprouted form of alfalfa, which many people eat on salads. The word comes from an Arabic root, al-fisfisa, "fresh fodder."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

alfalfa alfalfas

Shallow groundwater stores supported fruit orchards, alfalfa fields, livestock ranches and, at one point, a water park and dozens of manmade lakes where people could fish, sail and water ski.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Irrigation supports crops including alfalfa, cotton, onions, pecans, and the area's famous Hatch green chiles.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026

Over an alfalfa field in California's San Joaquin Valley, a small crop-spraying plane is flying scarily low to the ground.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

"Do you want to build houses or do you want to sell alfalfa? You can't do both."

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

Which gave him great joy except for one minor consideration: the barking came from underneath the ground in an alfalfa field where a thousand graceful, noisy birds called killdeer were nesting.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

Western forages have been depleted and organic alfalfas, hays and sileages are in limited supply and nearly doubled in price, said Albert Straus, the founder and CEO of Straus Family Creamery in Marin County.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 15, 2022

During three months from January 1, 1910, in examining 450 lots of seeds of grasses, clovers and alfalfas, besides large numbers of common weeds that we know, were 74 kinds not known to the writer.

From Seeds of Michigan Weeds Bulletin 260, Michigan State Agricultural College Experiment Station, Division of Botany, March, 1910 by W. J. (William James) Beal

Clovers, alfalfas, lentils, peas, beans yield foodstuffs rich in all the elements that build flesh and bone and nerve tissues.

From Trees Worth Knowing by Julia Ellen Rogers

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---