knotweed

American

[not-weed] / ˈnɒtˌwid /

noun

any of several knotty-stemmed plants belonging to the genus Polygonum, of the buckwheat family.

knotweed British

/ ˈnɒtˌwiːd /

noun

any of several polygonaceous plants of the genus Polygonum, having small flowers and jointed stems

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of knotweed

First recorded in 1570–80; knot ¹ + weed ¹

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:

knotweed

And what’s Japanese knotweed, and why is it destroying Elizabeth’s house?

From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2024

They said the legal "principle" was important, given the "number of knotweed cases".

From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2023

KINGSTON, Mass. — Asa Peters marched into a thicket of Japanese knotweed in the woods of coastal Massachusetts this month and began steadily hacking the towering, dense vegetation down to size.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 24, 2022

“People are always being like, ‘When will the knotweed be gone?'”

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 11, 2022

Its crops were such unfamiliar plants as marshelder, knotweed, maygrass, and little barley.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023