arum family

[air-uhm]

noun

1. the plant family Araceae, characterized by herbaceous plants having numerous tiny flowers on a fleshy spike above or sheathed by a large spathe, and including the anthurium, calla lily, jack-in-the-pulpit, and philodendron.

Other Word Forms

• arumlike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of arum family¹

1545–55; < Latin < Greek áron wake-robin

Example Sentences

Taro, t�′rō, n. a plant of the arum family, widely cultivated for its edible roots in the islands of the Pacific.

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The dasheen is a broad-leaved member of the arum family.

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Neb prepared some agouti soup, a smoked capybara ham, to which was added the boiled tubercules of the "caladium macrorhizum," an herbaceous plant of the arum family.

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Sweet′ener, one who, or that which, sweetens; Sweet′ening, act of sweetening: that which sweetens; Sweet′-flag, -rush, an aromatic plant of the genus Acorus of the arum family; Sweet′heart, a lover or mistress.—n.pl.

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