sunflower
Americannoun
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sunflowers
plural
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any of various composite plants of the genus Helianthus, as H. annuus, having showy, yellow-rayed flower heads often 12 inches (30 centimeters) wide, and edible seeds that yield an oil with a wide variety of uses: the state flower of Kansas.
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Also called aster. Furniture. a conventionalized flower motif carved in the center panels of a Connecticut chest.
noun
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any of several American plants of the genus Helianthus, esp H. annuus, having very tall thick stems, large flower heads with yellow rays, and seeds used as food, esp for poultry: family Asteraceae (composites) See also Jerusalem artichoke
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the oil extracted from sunflower seeds, used as a salad oil, in the manufacture of margarine, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sunflower
First recorded in 1555–65; translation of Latin flōs sōlis “flower of the sun”
Vocabulary lists containing sunflower
Non-Color Words to Use When Describing Color
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Yellow
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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.
See Examples For:
Winterich kept otherwise ordinary gifts — including a sunflower mug chosen because her mother knew yellow was her favorite color, because her mother would never give her another one.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
“I was almost like a sunflower, constantly facing and chasing actor Jeon.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
Higher palm and soy oil prices more than offset declines in sunflower and rapeseed oils.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
The drone later crashed into a sunflower field, he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 8, 2026
One of the sunflower seeds hopped across the slate tiles of the front walk.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
The scene resembles the Ukrainian flag: yellow fields of corn, sunflowers and wheat, a crisp blue September sky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Adams said straw, mushrooms, corn, rye and sunflowers are great bioremediators that can help to repair damage to soils.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Plus a flower shop next door called Verdant that has flowers I’ve genuinely never seen anywhere else: pink sunflowers that aren’t dyed, just extraordinary things.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
And so the same peloton will be hurtling along the cobbles a couple of months before gliding through the sunflowers of a French summer.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
She had a butterfly bush and yellow sunflowers, cosmos, daisies, daylilies, two birdbaths full of water.
From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings
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.
