noun
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a person who works in or takes care of a garden as an occupation or pastime
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any bowerbird of the genus Amblyornis
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gardener
1250–1300; Middle English < Old North French gardinier ( Old French jardinier ). See garden, -er 2
Explanation
A person whose hobby or job is growing flowers in a garden is called a gardener. If you want homegrown flowers and veggies, get to know a gardener. If you grow vegetables professionally, you're called a farmer, but if you design, tend, or care for a flower garden, you're a gardener. Planting anything on a small scale, in your own backyard, also makes you a gardener. The word gardener was a common last name starting in the 13th century, from the Old French jardineor, and the Old North French gardin, "kitchen garden or orchard."
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:
I’m not a natural gardener, but I really enjoy it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Alan had worked as a landscape gardener before launching a training and life-coaching business, while Katie was an actuary, or risk assessor, for a financial firm.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
He joked that he had a previous "career as a gardener", and his wife Diana Fox quoted Christy Moore's Don't Forget Your Shovel as he worked.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
But when Lee shared her frustrations with her graduate school adviser, noted author and avid gardener Jamaica Kincaid, she got the encouragement she needed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
For a farm boy, he was not a very good gardener.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
Professional gardeners like to use their blowers at full throttle.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Mabe believes that overall, for gardeners embracing long-lasting electric equipment, "There's big rewards if they can make it work."
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The discovery could help farmers, landowners, conservationists and gardeners make better decisions about how to support healthy pollinator populations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
“We weren’t seeing many soils with concerning elevated levels of metal, so gardeners should not be too alarmed when these things happen.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
All the morning the gardeners were bringing flowers into the house, the last of the white lilac, and great lupins and delphiniums, roses in hundreds, and every sort of lily.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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.
