herbarium
Americannoun
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a collection of dried plants systematically arranged.
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a room or building in which such a collection is kept.
noun
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a collection of dried plants that are mounted and classified systematically
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a building, room, etc, in which such a collection is kept
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of herbarium
1770–80; < Late Latin, equivalent to Latin herb ( a ) herb, green vegetation + -ārium -arium
Explanation
A herbarium is a collection of preserved plants. Think of it as a library of herbs. A herbarium can be something as simple as that book of pressed flowers you made at summer camp, or as complex as a building that holds case after case of flowers soaked in formaldehyde, dried moss stored in archival quality envelopes, and cones from conifers organized in boxes. Find these larger collections at universities, botanical gardens, and natural history museums.
Vocabulary lists containing herbarium
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-arium, -orium
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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.
Rousseau’s unfinished, unstructured “Reveries” resembles the herbarium in which he gathered a botanical record of his daily walks.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
Kevin says he loved walks in the countryside and collecting plants for his herbarium, and also studying at school.
From BBC • Aug. 19, 2024
His work is based in MSU's herbarium, housing approximately 38,000 vascular plant specimens from around the world with an emphasis on the Southeastern U.S.
From Science Daily • May 29, 2024
The team instead applied new genomic methods that allow ready sequencing of nuclear DNA from herbarium specimens, they reported on 24 April in Nature.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 24, 2024
The scientists and librarians still collect their keys in the mornings, still study their ancient elephants’ teeth, their exotic jellyfish, their herbarium sheets.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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.
