frond
Americannoun
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an often large, finely divided leaf, especially as applied to the ferns and certain palms.
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a leaflike expansion not differentiated into stem and foliage, as in lichens.
noun
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a large compound leaf, esp of a fern
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the thallus of a seaweed or a lichen
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A leaf of a fern or cycad, usually consisting of multiple leaflets.
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A large, fanlike leaf of a palm tree.
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A leaflike structure such as the thallus of a lichen or a seaweed.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of frond
1745–55; < Latin frond- (stem of frōns ) branch, bough, foliage
Explanation
A compound leaf — that is, a leaf with many fine and deep divisions — is a frond, such as on ferns and palm trees. Although commonly referring to the leafy part of a fern or palm, the noun frond can also refer to anything that has a similar shape to a palm frond or fern frond. If your bedhead is really bad, people may joke about your combing your fronds. In parts of the United States and Canada, you may eat the fronds of fiddlehead ferns, which are cooked and served as a vegetable.
Vocabulary lists containing frond
The Cay
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Top 50 Wordle Words of 2024
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Plants (Botany) - Introduction
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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:
A decade later, now a professional camera operator, he found himself in a sunny field in Greenford, filming close up shots of Sir David releasing harvest mice on to a grass frond.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 2026
This means each frond is a major investment of resources that the plant repurposes after the leaf dies.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 29, 2024
I didn’t see it, but somebody told me Jim Cantore did get hit with a palm frond during part of his coverage.
From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2022
Palm fronds can tear away and tumble toward pedestrians below; in the best-case scenario, when the frond doesn’t hit anyone or a car, it becomes litter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2021
A coconut palm frond knotted into a cross was nailed above the picture.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
At one point father and baby ate grass together, the big grass fronds flickering around their heads as they chomped.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
In February there is not much to see yet, just thin fronds that will become metre-long blades by spring.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2026
It looks like charcoal, but the black briquettes are actually made from plant waste: millet and sesame stalks, palm fronds and cobs.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
They spent $40 million to return Casa Bonita to its heyday, down to freshly scrubbed fake palm fronds and restored vintage tilework while vowing to make the food long nicknamed “Casa No-Eat-A” actually edible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2025
Kainene asked Baby to join the older children making lizard traps, to learn how to mat the palm fronds and place the cocoon full of iddo ants inside.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
