dicotyledon

American  

[dahy-kot-l-eed-n, dahy-kot-l-] / daɪˌkɒt lˈid n, ˌdaɪ kɒt l- /

noun

Botany.

1. any angiospermous plant of the class (or subclass) Dicotyledoneae, producing seeds with two cotyledons and having an exogenous manner of growth.

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dicotyledon British  

/ daɪˌkɒtɪˈliːdən, ˌdaɪkɒt- /

noun

1. any flowering plant of the class Dicotyledonae , normally having two embryonic seed leaves and leaves with netlike veins. The group includes many herbaceous plants and most families of trees and shrubs

2. primitive dicotyledon . any living relative of early angiosperms that branched off before the evolution of monocotyledons and eudicotyledons. The group comprises about 5 per cent of the world's plants

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dicotyledon Scientific  

/ dī′kŏt′l-ēd′n /

1. An angiosperm that is not a monocotyledon, having two cotyledons in the seed. The term dicotyledon serves as a convenient label for the eudicotyledons, the magnoliids, and a varied group of other angiosperms, but it does not correspond to a single taxonomic group.

2. Compare monocotyledon See more at eudicotyledon leaf magnoliid

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Other Word Forms

• dicotyledonous adjective

Etymology

Origin of dicotyledon

First recorded in 1720–30, dicotyledon is from the New Latin word Dicotyledones a pre-Linnean grouping of such plants. See di- ¹, cotyledon

Compare meaning

How does dicotyledon compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• monocotyledon vs. dicotyledon

Example Sentences

There are no other examples among the currently sequenced dicotyledon genomes that contain a sole single copy of an ancestral chromosome.

From Nature

CUCURBITACEAE, a botanical order of dicotyledons, containing 87 genera and about 650 species, found in the temperate and warmer parts of the earth but especially developed in the tropics.

From Project Gutenberg

In an old stem of Cycas, Encephalartos or Macrozamia the secondary wood consists of several rather unevenly concentric zones, while in some other genera it forms a continuous mass as in conifers and normal dicotyledons.

From Project Gutenberg

Whether they be dicotyledons or monocotyledons, there is a fundamental agreement in the anatomy of the roots and stem of aquatic plants, and, in many cases, of the leaves as well.

From Project Gutenberg

The symmetry which is most commonly met with is trimerous and pentamerous—the former occurring generally among monocotyledons, the latter among dicotyledons.

From Project Gutenberg