dandelion
Americannoun
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a weedy composite plant, Taraxacum officinale, having edible, deeply toothed or notched leaves, golden-yellow flowers, and rounded clusters of white, hairy seeds.
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any other plant of the genus Taraxacum.
noun
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a plant, Taraxacum officinale, native to Europe and Asia and naturalized as a weed in North America, having yellow rayed flowers and deeply notched basal leaves, which are used for salad or wine: family Asteraceae (composites)
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any of several similar related plants
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dandelion
1505–15; < Middle French, alteration of dent de lion, literally, tooth of (a) lion, translation of Medieval Latin dēns leōnis, in allusion to the toothed leaves
Explanation
A dandelion is a plant with bright yellow flowers that's considered a weed by many people. Others enjoy adding bitter dandelion greens to their salads. While some lawn enthusiasts see dandelions as an enemy to be eradicated, they are actually in the daisy family and arguably just as pretty. After blooming, the flowers transition to seed, resulting in soft, round seed heads that you can blow into the air while making a wish. Historians believe that dandelions were brought to North America on the Mayflower and were valued for their medicinal and nutritional properties.
Vocabulary lists containing dandelion
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:
The packaging for Molecule pills often lists "natural ingredients" such as dandelion root and fennel seed extract.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2025
A sea of yellow—ocher, dandelion, goldenrod—seems to support a single tree backed by a dark vacuum, but as our eyes adjust, we realize a barn in deepest alizarin crimson dominates the scene.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Leafy greens and herbs: arugula, spinach, beet greens, mustard greens, radish tops, kale, dandelion, nasturtiums, fennel fronds, nettles, lovage, microgreens.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2025
Kate reads not radar but dandelion fluff and the way wind ripples across wheat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2024
She had been so distracted by the prospect of becoming dandelion fluff that she had not hauled the boat out of the water as she should have.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
If weekend warriors can’t slay zombies on a dystopian battlefield, at least they can massacre dandelions in their backyards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Also on the vest, under a slate-gray sky where many men brought together in mourning wore hoodies and woollen caps, lay two dandelions and some flower petals.
From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026
Its subject matter — a blooming iris, dandelions, birch trees — did not seem controversial.
From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2024
When we arrived at the plant, a group of women were out cleaning the paths, painting the kerb, even pulling up dandelions around the main entrance.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2024
I was hungry for green vegetables, and that night as I went off to sleep, I thought of the pokeweeds, the dandelions, the spring beauties that would soon be pressing up from the earth.
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
