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 • Jun. 10, 2014

I will describe as examples the reproduction of a moss, a fern, and a dicotyledon.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 531, March 6, 1886 by Various

"A primrose by the river's brim a dicotyledon was to him, and it was nothing more."

From Platform Monologues by Tucker, T. G. (Thomas George)

This will bring up the terms dicotyledon and monocotyledon.

From Outlines of Lessons in Botany, Part I; from Seed to Leaf by Newell, Jane H.

Nothing could be more useful than botany-those who could not distinguish between a dicotyledon and a monocotyledon could certainly never rightly grasp the nature of a hedgerow.

From Hodge and His Masters by Jefferies, Richard