cyme

American  

[sahym] / saɪm /

noun

1. an inflorescence in which the primary axis bears a single central or terminal flower that blooms first.

2. a flat or convex inflorescence of this type.

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cyme British  

/ saɪm, saɪˈmɪfərəs /

noun

1. an inflorescence in which the first flower is the terminal bud of the main stem and subsequent flowers develop as terminal buds of lateral stems

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cyme Scientific  

/ sīm /

1. A usually flat-topped or convex determinate inflorescence in which the central main stem and each side branch end in a flower. The flowers in the cluster begin blooming from the flower on the main stem downwards or outwards. Baby's breath, dogwood, and the tomato have cymes.

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Other Word Forms

• cymiferous adjective

Etymology

Origin of cyme

1595–1605; < Latin cȳma cabbage sprout < Greek kŷma; see cyma

Example Sentences

"I cyme all the w'y from Ilford 'cause I'd never seen 'im," she cried.

From Time Magazine Archive

Cymose, furnished with cymes, or like a cyme.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

Stem short, naked above, the numerous racemes in a usually nearly simple cyme, leaves narrow, acuminate; seeds globose, without caruncle.—Del. and southward.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

Diagram of a scorpioid cyme, with opposite leaves or bracts.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

The general name of cyme is applied to the arrangement of a group of flowers in a definite inflorescence.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various