sere
1 Americanadjective
noun
noun
adjective
verb
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The entire sequence of ecological communities successively occupying an area from the initial stage to the climax community.
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See more at succession
Etymology
Origin of sere1
before 900; Middle English seer ( e ), Old English sēar; see sear 1
Origin of sere2
First recorded in 1915–20; back formation from series
Explanation
You can describe something that is dried up, withered, or without moisture with the adjective sere. The desert climate, for example, is sere, as is your skin after a day in the wind. Sere’s shriveled and withered meaning crops up in things like Shakespeare's Macbeth ("My way of life Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow leaf;" 5:III), or in archaic references to Sere-month (August), but it isn't frequently used in modern conversation. The variant spelling of sere is sear, which has other meanings that see more modern use.
Vocabulary lists containing sere
Words from Shakespearean Insults
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
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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.
And in that sere landscape, you watch as a man’s identity dries up and blows away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2022
A sere moonscape of rock, sand and mountains, portions of the park lie 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 10, 2021
Some of the best of what was left of what had been a rolling inland sea of sere, sage green.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2021
Winter is the best time for walking, May insists in this wide-ranging rumination on the sere, dark, cold season.
From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2020
The margins of the spring’s small lively pool were frozen, and the sere moss among the rocks was traced with flowers of frost.
From "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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.
