trillium

American

[tril-ee-uhm] / ˈtrɪl i əm /

noun

any of several plants belonging to the genus Trillium, of the lily family, having a whorl of three leaves from the center of which rises a solitary, three-petalled flower.

trillium British

/ ˈtrɪljəm /

noun

any herbaceous plant of the genus Trillium , of Asia and North America, having a whorl of three leaves at the top of the stem with a single central white, pink, or purple three-petalled flower: family Trilliaceae

"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

Etymology

Origin of trillium

< New Latin (Linnaeus), apparently alteration of Swedish trilling triplet, alluding to the foliation

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.

Like the three-petaled trillium, the book has three sections.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

Spring’s first trillium shone white in the shadowy forest floor.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 6, 2022

In early summer, they made a game of counting the wild irises or trillium we passed on the way home or to town.

From Salon • Jan. 30, 2022

There are also local wildflowers - trillium, dogtooth violets and cornflowers from ditches.

From BBC • Oct. 18, 2019

Ella riffled through the cabinet of herbs, eyes scanning over all the little drawers of dried roots and plants, the labels in Latin: trillium grandiflorum, viburnum, eugenia pimenta, and so on.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023