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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

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See Examples For:

trillium

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

April to early May is the earliest you might expect to see skunk cabbage, coltsfoot and trillium blooming around Longmire, in the Mount Rainier National Park’s southwest corner.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2023

Disappearing too are native orchids, trillium, ginseng and a range of wildflowers.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 17, 2023

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

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2019

The very first trillium to bloom was deep red, which was likely why folks call it a “wake-robin.”

From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen

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