rowan
Americannoun
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rowans
plural
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the European mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia, having pinnate leaves and clusters of bright red berries.
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either of two American mountain ashes, Sorbus americana or S. sambucifolia.
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the berry of any of these trees.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of rowan
1795–1805; < Old Norse *raun- in reynir, Norwegian raun
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:
Native trees like alder, spruce and rowan are interspersed with hawthorn shrubs.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
The moose mostly ate birch, rowan and willow trees.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 11, 2023
Flavored with Scottish rowan berry among other botanicals.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 27, 2021
The children presented the monarch with two rowan trees that will be planted as part of the Queen's Green Canopy, a UK-wide tree planting initiative to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee next year.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2021
Hundreds of pounds of denatured iron that alchemists would have fought over The mayor nodded eagerly and singsonged, “Dig a pit that’s ten by two. Ash and elm and rowan too.”
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Among the pines grew rowans hung with scarlet berries, and bilberry bushes whose leaves would be fair game for white moth caterpillars in spring.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 25, 2020
Just as he reached the little lawn among the rowans he overtook him, toiling uphill, panting and calling, Frodo!
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Nevertheless, he could not quite overcome his surprise when, after a short while, they indeed came upon a swift running brook winding its way through a stand of rowans.
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
Gurgi, sniffing hungrily, ran ahead and disappeared into a stand of rowans.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
All about the brim of it grew hawthorns and rowans and hazel-trees.
From The Primrose Ring by Ruth Sawyer
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.
