Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

bearberry

American  
[bair-ber-ee, -buh-ree] / ˈbɛərˌbɛr i, -bə ri /

noun

bearberries plural
  1. any of several prostrate shrubs belonging to the genus Arctostaphylos, of the heath family, especially A. uva-ursi, having tonic, astringent leaves and bright-red berries.

  2. cascara.

  3. possum haw.

  4. any of several other plants, as some species of cranberry.


bearberry British  
/ ˈbɛəbərɪ /

noun

  1. a trailing evergreen ericaceous shrub, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi , with small pinkish-white flowers, red berries, and astringent leaves

  2. a related species, A. alpina of European mountains, having black berries

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of bearberry

First recorded in 1615–25; bear 2 + berry

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:

Hyper Skin’s latest face mask will leave you radiant while also working to fade dark spots with niacinamide and bearberry.

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 21, 2022

A ways down the road we found equally varied botany: dwarf willows, crowberry plants and alpine bearberry shrubs that would turn crimson in two months.

From Washington Post Apr. 7, 2016

She pulled herself to the top with a branch of bearberry shrub, and offered him her hand.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko

Fa had given them to him when he was seven, rubbing bearberry juice into the pierced skin.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

Characteristic plants are the blueberry and bearberry, mixed with creeping juniper and a few scattered grasses.

From Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920 Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109 by Dice, L. R.

The term “traditional tobacco” can refer to other indigenous plants that may not contain nicotine at all, including the dried leaves of bearberries and the bark from red and spotted willows.

From Scientific American Mar. 29, 2018

That night we camped at the foot of the volcano, in a meadow carpeted with yellow rhododendrons and crimson bearberries.

From Time Magazine Archive

Yes, ma'am," said Asahel staring a little; — "there's red raspberries, and black raspberries, and low-bush blackberries and high blackberries, and huckleberries, and bearberries, and cranberries; besides nuts, and apples.

From Hills of the Shatemuc by Warner, Susan

The girls join their mothers in picking berries, which are plentiful and of great variety—raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, blueberries, gooseberries, swampberries, saskatoonberries, pembinaberries, pheasantberries, bearberries, and snakeberries.

From The Drama of the Forests Romance and Adventure by Heming, Arthur Henry Howard

The juice of bearberries gives them a bright red.

From The Drama of the Forests Romance and Adventure by Heming, Arthur Henry Howard

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training