gardenia
Americannoun
-
gardenias
plural
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any evergreen tree or shrub belonging to the genus Gardenia, of the madder family, native to the warmer parts of the Eastern Hemisphere, cultivated for its usually large, fragrant white flowers.
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the flower of any of these plants.
noun
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any evergreen shrub or tree of the Old World tropical rubiaceous genus Gardenia, cultivated for their large fragrant waxlike typically white flowers
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the flower of any of these shrubs
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gardenia
< New Latin (1760), after Alexander Garden (1730–91), American physician; see -ia
Vocabulary lists containing gardenia
Some Obscure Eponyms
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Example Sentences
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See Examples For:
The FDA is instead encouraging the use of so-called natural food dyes such as gardenia blue and calcium phosphate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2025
A much larger 2016 fire in the Waianae mountains on the other side of Oahu took out one of the last remaining populations of a rare tree gardenia, said Gon.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 11, 2023
Yield makes minimalist citronella candles and incense sticks, lightly fragranced with gardenia, eucalyptus and citronella.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 19, 2023
And a genipin-derived blue from gardenia fruits that has long been used in parts of Asia could soon enter the U.S. and international markets, too.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 14, 2023
There was an endless supply of fat towels and liquid gardenia soap.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
Coca-Cola is a perfect fertilizer for gardenias, azaleas and grass.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2023
His specialty is imaging up a landscape that utilizes pebbles and rocks, trees that are more natural, with lights illuminating them at night, and flowers like gardenias that perfume the entrance to a home.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2023
Like everything else, they were different this year — red gardenias instead of roses.
From Washington Post ● May 2, 2020
The stocks and gardenias and roses were heady with perfume, alive with butterflies of every color.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 28, 2016
Because women may love flowers, but only one woman loves the scent of gardenias in late summer that remind her of her grandmother’s porch.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
