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
We gather to prepare ourselves to bid a frond farewell to Los Angeles’ palm trees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
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
Closer, before his nose, every blade of grass, every bracken frond was bent, dripping and glistening.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
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
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 gather drinking water from a river, start fires with sticks, arrange palm fronds for one type of shelter and ice blocks for another, as well as prepare meals of cactus and beetles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
Mourners have been carrying branches and palm fronds, a symbol of mourning and grief among the Luo ethnic group to which Odinga belonged.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2025
The sides of the glen were shaggy with last year’s bracken, among which the tight-curled fronds of spring were just thrusting through the sweet-scented earth.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
