anemone

[uh-nem-uh-nee]

See more synonyms for anemone on Thesaurus.com

noun

any of various plants belonging to the genus Anemone, of the buttercup family, having petallike sepals and including several wild species with white flowers as well as others cultivated for their showy flowers in a variety of colors.
sea anemone.

Origin of anemone

1545–55; < Latin < Greek: literally, daughter of the wind, equivalent to ánem(os) wind + -ōnē feminine patronymic suffix; see -one

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for anemone

Historical Examples

Lulla, because of her anemone ways, is sometimes unkindly called "Huffs."
Lotus Buds
Amy Carmichael
The Japanese anemone should be replanted only in the spring.
Making a Garden of Perennials
W. C. Egan
Drop one in the centre of an anemone and see how quickly it contracts.
The Log of the Sun
William Beebe
Of course not; I should think I ought to know an anemone by now, sir!
Bob Strong's Holidays
John Conroy Hutcheson
The Anemone and Ranunculus are medium, or half-hardy, roots.
A Treatise on Domestic Economy
Catherine Esther Beecher

British Dictionary definitions for anemone

anemone

noun

any ranunculaceous woodland plant of the genus Anemone of N temperate regions, such as the white-flowered A. nemorosa (wood anemone or windflower). Some cultivated anemones have lilac, pale blue, pink, purple, or red flowersSee also pasqueflower Compare sea anemone

Word Origin

C16: via Latin from Greek: windflower, from anemos wind

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for anemone

n.

flowering plant genus, 1550s, from Middle French anemone (16c.) and directly from Latin anemone, from Greek anemone "wind flower," literally "daughter of the wind," from anemos "wind" (cognate with Latin anima; see animus) + -one feminine patronymic suffix. According to Asa Gray, so called because it was thought to open only when the wind blows. Klein suggests the flower name perhaps originally is from Hebrew (cf. na'aman, in nit'e na'amanim, literally "plants of pleasantness," in Is. xvii:10, from na'em "was pleasant"). Applied to a type of sea creature (sea anemone) from 1773.