ceanothus

[ see-uh-noh-thuhs ]

/ ˌsi əˈnoʊ θəs /

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noun, plural ce·a·no·thus·es.

any North American shrub or small tree of the largely western genus Ceanothus, having clusters of small white or blue flowers.

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Origin of ceanothus

<New Latin (Linnaeus) <Greek keánōthos a species of thistle

Words nearby ceanothus

CDV, CD-video, CD writer, Ce, CEA, ceanothus, Ceará, cease, cease and desist, cease-and-desist order, ceased

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use ceanothus in a sentence

The old foreground of buckeye and odorous ceanothus was gone.
The Three Partners|Bret Harte
The azaleas were already budding, the ceanothus getting ready its lilac livery for spring.
Selected Stories|Bret Harte
Another ceanothus, commonly called mountain birch, is often found.
The Lake of the Sky|George Wharton James
The genus Ceanothus is well known from the beautiful C. azureus.
Botany for Ladies|Jane Loudon

It is our holly, as the Ceanothus is our lilac, and the poison-oak is our autumn-red sumac.
Insect Stories|Vernon L. Kellogg

British Dictionary definitions for ceanothus

ceanothus

/ (ˌsiːəˈnəʊθəs) /

noun

any shrub of the North American rhamnaceous genus Ceanothus: grown for their ornamental, often blue, flower clusters

Word Origin for ceanothus

C19: New Latin, from Greek keanōthos a kind of thistle

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