flora
1 Americannoun
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the plants of a particular region or period, listed by species and considered as a whole.
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a work systematically describing such plants.
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plants, as distinguished from fauna.
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the aggregate of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms normally occurring on or in the bodies of humans and other animals.
intestinal flora.
noun
noun
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all the plant life of a given place or time
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a descriptive list of such plants, often including a key for identification
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short for intestinal flora
noun
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The plants of a particular region or time period.
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The bacteria and other microorganisms that normally inhabit a bodily organ or part, such as the intestine.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of flora
First recorded in 1655–65; from New Latin, Latin Flōra the Roman goddess of flowers (used from the 17th century in the titles of botanical works), derivative of Latin flōr- (stem of flōs ) “flower”
Explanation
The flora of a particular area consists of its plant species, considered as a whole. The word also refers to the plant life of a particular era — for example, fossilized plants can help us determine the flora at the time of dinosaurs. The use of the word flora as referring to a particular area's vegetation has been used by botanists since the 1640s, but it became common with Swedish botanist Linnaeus, who in 1745 wrote "Flora Suecica," a study of the plant life of Sweden. The word was a natural fit, as Flōra was the name of the Roman goddess of flowers. When scientists study a region's flora, they classify their findings and create a descriptive list, which is also called a flora.
Vocabulary lists containing flora
Physical Geography - Introductory
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First-Name Basis: Words That Are Also Names
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Physical Geography - Middle School
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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.
See Examples For:
For those unfamiliar with these funky flora, be warned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
His background as an expert on South America adds color and authenticity to his narrative, offering rich descriptions of the land, flora and fauna of the Peruvian-Chilean coastline and highlands as backdrop to Miller’s adventures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
After awakening, the biome’s newly cultivated gut flora will respond to your neurological directive, allowing you to ultimately control when — and where — your wind breaks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026
It is the best event the site has seen since 2016, with swathes of the desert transformed and covered in golden and violet flora.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026
“There he was, talking about the post-volcanic flora and I puked right on him,” Kim told me in homeroom the next day.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
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First pitcher selected in this year’s draft: Jackson Flora of UC Santa Barbara, taken fourth overall by the San Francisco Giants.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Coty originally acquired the license back in 2016, giving it the rights to sell Gucci-branded beauty products like the Flora and Bloom fragrance lines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Smart glasses have been slowly growing in usage, but the category overall faces several barriers to mainstream adoption, said Flora Tang, principal analyst at Counterpoint Research.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 27, 2026
The Forgotten Flora project was started three years ago with the goal of reviving threatened plants in North Yorkshire and has led to the planting of thousands of lesser-known wildflower species.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
She never answered her mother when she called her Flora Belle.
From "Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures" by Kate DiCamillo
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Of the 1,000 or so species of floras in the park, lodgepole pine and the duff from its fallen needles and branches provided most of the fuel for the fires.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Successive faunas and floras were created only to be extinguished by general cataclysms.
The forests are thus highly diversified and partake of the characteristics of both the northern and southern floras.
From North America by Russell, Israel C. (Cook)
Everywhere we have abundant floras and faunas indicating warmer conditions than such as now prevail, but never in a single instance one which as clearly indicates colder conditions.
From Island Life Or the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras by Wallace, Alfred Russel
He was distinguished for his researches on the Tertiary floras of various parts of Europe, and on the fossil floras of Australia and New Zealand.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 8 "Ethiopia" to "Evangelical Association" by Various
Definitions 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.