bracken
Americannoun
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a large fern or brake, especially Pteridium aquilinum.
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a cluster or thicket of such ferns; an area overgrown with ferns and shrubs.
noun
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Also called: brake. any of various large coarse ferns, esp Pteridium aquilinum , having large fronds with spore cases along the undersides and extensive underground stems
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a clump of any of these ferns
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bracken
1275–1325; Middle English braken < Scandinavian; compare Swedish bräken fern, Norwegian brake juniper
Explanation
Bracken is a weedy type of fern that's native to the Southern Hemisphere. If you visit Australia, you'll almost certainly see some bracken, which grows in every state of the country. While bracken, also known as the bracken fern, originally comes from New Zealand and Australia, it can be found all around the world today. In fact, bracken is considered an invasive species in most countries, leaving only deserts and extremely cold regions unaffected by its spread. Bracken is coarse and weedy, and while its roots are commonly eaten by Maori in New Zealand, the leaves have been found to cause cancer.
Vocabulary lists containing bracken
The Hobbit
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 6
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"Birches" by Robert Frost
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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.
"It hasn't been able to adapt its life cycle away from this need from a certain temperature on the ground. The cutting of the bracken is essential."
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
High Browns need a delicate combination of bracken and common dog violet.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Phil Holden, who works for Shropshire Hills National Landscape, and volunteers with the group, said cutting back bracken and allowing wildflowers to bloom also helps the ancient site.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
It also has unusual habitats like ffridd, a Welsh term for a type of upland ecosystem common in Wales, that is made up of a combination of habitats including bog, acid grassland, and bracken.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
Sometimes there are other pieces of toilet paper there already, melting among the bracken and dead leaves, but mostly there are not.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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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.
