Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

thistle

American  
[this-uhl] / ˈθɪs əl /

noun

  1. any of various prickly, composite plants having showy, purple flower heads, especially of the genera Cirsium, Carduus, or Onopordum.

  2. any of various other prickly plants.

Thistle 1 British  
/ ˈθɪsəl /

noun

  1. See Order of the Thistle

  2. (sometimes not capital)

    1. the emblem of this Order

    2. membership of this Order

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
thistle 2 British  
/ ˈθɪsəl /

noun

  1. any of numerous plants of the genera Cirsium, Carduus , and related genera, having prickly-edged leaves, pink, purple, yellow, or white dense flower heads, and feathery hairs on the seeds: family Asteraceae (composites)

  2. a thistle, or a representation of one, as the national emblem of Scotland

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • thistlelike adjective
  • thistly adjective

Etymology

Origin of thistle

before 900; Middle English thistel, Old English; cognate with Dutch distel, German Distel, Old Norse thistill

Vocabulary lists containing thistle

Purple

Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!

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.

If I’m reading my wildflowers handbook right, these were tidy tips, Goldfields, Owl’s Clover, thistle sage, Valley Larkspur, coreopsis, phacelia and hillside daisies.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026

Among England's Tudor rose, Scotland's thistle, the Welsh leek and the Irish shamrock are the Canadian maple leaf and India's lotus flower.

From BBC • Dec. 26, 2025

And since each sphere, though itself dead, seldom carries fewer than 150,000 fertile seeds, and sometimes as many as a quarter of a million, every tumbler leaves a vast wake of potential Russian thistle plants.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 2025

Researchers from the University of Cologne have found a new use for Cnicin, a substance produced in blessed thistle.

From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2024

One day there was particular trouble with a thistle, and he had miscalculated the amount of food which ought to have been given the day before.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

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.