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• heather
  heather

  noun

  any of various heaths, especially Calluna vulgaris, of England and Scotland, having small, pinkish-purple flowers.
• Heather
  Heather

  noun

  a female given name.

heather

¹ American  

[heth-er] / ˈhɛð ər /

noun

1. 

   any of various heaths, especially Calluna vulgaris, of England and Scotland, having small, pinkish-purple flowers.

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adjective

1. (of a yarn or fabric color) subtly flecked or mottled.

   all-cotton turtlenecks in your choice of five solid colors plus heather gray and heather green.

Heather ² American  

[heth-er] / ˈhɛð ər /

noun

1. a female given name.

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heather British  

/ ˈhɛðə /

noun

1. Also called: ling, heath. a low-growing evergreen Eurasian ericaceous shrub, Calluna vulgaris, that grows in dense masses on open ground and has clusters of small bell-shaped typically pinkish-purple flowers

2. any of certain similar plants

3. a purplish-red to pinkish-purple colour

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adjective

1. of a heather colour

2. of or relating to interwoven yarns of mixed colours

   heather mixture

Other Word Forms

• heathered
  adjective
• heathery
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of heather

1300–50; spelling variant of hether, earlier hedder, hadder, hather, Middle English hathir; akin to heath

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Explanation

Heather is a hearty flowering plant that's common in many parts of the world but most famous for growing in the Scottish Highlands. Heather grows in low, dense mats, often in soil that's wet, acidic, or otherwise inhospitable. In Scotland, millions of acres are carpeted in colorful heather, and the country is closely associated with the plant. The Old English root of heather is hæddre, and the word was mainly used in Scots until the 16th century. As a girl's name, Heather was extremely rare until the 1930s, and its popularity exploded in the 1970s and 80s.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

heather Heather

I watch my 10 year old daughter Zena races through heather nearby, building boulder bridges over a cold stream, clinging to my brother as the Etive Mòr and Black Mount mountains rise behind them.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

Eight years on, there is still no heather in large patches.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

Volunteers have been key to managing the wider heath, cutting gorse and heather in winter and removing pines.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

One imagines not the ghost of Cathy or Heathcliff, but a trio of women, very much alive and striding through the heather, their minds alight with the stories they would tell, set among similar terrain.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026

It might well prove to be all they could do to find their way across the heather to some quiet field or copse bank like those they had been used to.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

“Most industries are hiring, a much more broad-based job market than a year ago,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 5, 2026

Heather O'Connor, the attorney who represents Juror Doe, said she was in court because Clancy's defence team has "combined several allegations" to try to argue that a mistrial should not have been declared, she said.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

Heather Schwedel spoke with a Home Depot merchant to get the inside scoop on how these giant skeletons came to be.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2026

Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said the US economy was "on steroids right now" but that high inflation was its "Achilles heel."

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026

"But didn't you tell Brianne Slotsky that you have a Hollywood Heather doll?"

From "Sleepover Sleuths: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #1" by Carolyn Keene

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