petunia
Americannoun
-
any garden plant belonging to the genus Petunia, of the nightshade family, native to tropical America, having funnel-shaped flowers of various colors.
-
a deep, reddish purple.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of petunia
1815–25; < New Latin < obsolete French petun tobacco < Tupi petyn; see -ia
Vocabulary lists containing petunia
English Words Derived from Indigenous Languages of the Americas
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Example Sentences
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See Examples For:
Combined with the genetic manipulation of the potential proteins involved, the work surprisingly revealed that a karrikin-like signaling pathway played a key role in petunia cellular signaling.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2024
Light poles are adorned with overflowing petunia baskets and “flower towers,” with 19 blooming baskets running self-contained watering and fertilizing systems.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 12, 2023
To give you an idea of the creativity that required, my last version included the sentence, “What the petunia was that all about?”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 9, 2020
Capitol Facilities Manager John Boyle says the annual petunia planting costs about $7,000 for the flowers.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 5, 2019
On the table, my father had left a single flower in each of two juice glasses—a black-eyed susan in front of my place, and a white petunia in front of my mothers.
From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
These discoveries are helping scientists to better understand the resilience and evolutionary story of Solanaceae, or nightshades, a sprawling family of plants that includes tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, peppers, tobacco and petunias.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
The scientists have already shown that several common flowers, such as periwinkles, petunias, and roses can be made to glow.
From NewsForKids.net ● Jan. 19, 2024
The lush 5-acre lot near North Seattle College was once home to rows of sun-drenched greenhouses filled with Easter lilies, petunias and chrysanthemums.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 7, 2023
Stars, planets, people and petunias: everything emits a special kind of radiation and will, if it sticks around long enough, evaporate into nothing.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 22, 2023
Mariam saw flowers everywhere, tulips, lilies, petunias, their petals awash in sunlight.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
