milkweed

American  

[milk-weed] / ˈmɪlkˌwid /

noun

• milkweeds
  plural

1. any of several plants that secrete a milky juice or latex, especially those of the genus Asclepias, as A. syriaca.

2. any of various other plants having a milky juice, as certain spurges.

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milkweed British  

/ ˈmɪlkˌwiːd /

noun

1. Also called: silkweed. any plant of the mostly North American genus Asclepias, having milky sap and pointed pods that split open to release tufted seeds: family Asclepiadaceae See also asclepias

2. any of various other plants having milky sap

3. another name for butterfly weed

4. another name for monarch

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• milkweeds
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of milkweed

First recorded in 1590–1600; milk + weed ¹

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Compare meaning

How does milkweed compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• dogbane vs. milkweed

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

milkweed milkweeds

Ms. Williams delights in the paradoxes of butterfly evolution, including monarch caterpillars’ calibrated resistance to milkweed toxins.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

They did so because they recognized that strict prohibitions could backfire, leading landowners to destroy milkweed, a plant that monarchs need to survive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 1, 2025

Monarchs depend on everyday people—farmers, gardeners and city planners—planting milkweed and protecting pollinator spaces, so their recovery depends on cooperation, not coercion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 1, 2025

The one exception is a pot of orange-flowered tropical milkweed, a non-native variety they keep for sentimental reasons because it reminds them of how they met when they both were single living in Santa Monica.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025

The milkweed pods have exploded; they’re drooling foam into the bracken.

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson

“Planting milkweeds in your garden is great,” she says.

From National Geographic ● Dec. 14, 2023

Since the 1990s, the use of increasingly sophisticated chemical herbicides that kill everything but the crops genetically engineered to resist them has essentially “targeted milkweeds for elimination,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 8, 2023

Goldfarb cites the example of milkweeds, the exclusive feeding plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars.

From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2023

Scientists have discouraged people from planting tropical milkweed, a showy non-native plant that’s problematic in California because, unlike native milkweeds, it doesn’t die back during the winter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2023

Probably no one has ever made the exhaustive and absorbingly interesting study of the milkweeds that Professor Robertson has.

From Wild Flowers An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors by Neltje Blanchan

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