tulip
Americannoun
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tulips
plural
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any of various plants belonging to the genus Tulipa, of the lily family, cultivated in many varieties, and having lance-shaped leaves and large, showy, usually erect, cup-shaped or bell-shaped flowers in a variety of colors.
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a flower or bulb of such a plant.
noun
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any spring-blooming liliaceous plant of the temperate Eurasian genus Tulipa , having tapering bulbs, long broad pointed leaves, and single showy bell-shaped flowers
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the flower or bulb of any of these plants
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tulip
1570–80; earlier tulipa < New Latin, apparently back formation from Italian tulipano (taken as adj.) < Turkish tülbent turban (from a fancied likeness); see turban
Explanation
A tulip is a flower that grows from a bulb and blooms in the spring. You might give your grandmother a big bouquet of colorful tulips on her birthday. The first tulips were cultivated in 10th-century Persia, and the word tulip stems from the Persian dulband, "turban," which tulips resemble. In the Netherlands during the 17th century, tulips became so wildly popular that the price of the bulbs grew to be approximately ten times the annual salary of a skilled artisan. This period is known as "tulip mania." During this same time, a tulip virus caused variegated, or striped, patterns to appear for the first time on tulip petals.
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:
Anna Pavord, biographer of the tulip, lives in the area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
There is an annual tulip festival that celebrates Pella’s Dutch heritage.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2025
Investors paid enormous sums for tulip bulbs in the early 17th century, thinking their prices would rise indefinitely and fund the construction of houses and businesses.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2025
Why it should do so now, in a manner similar to the witch delusions that periodically swept medieval Europe or the Dutch tulip mania, has been much debated.
From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2025
Winged seeds lay beneath the tulip trees, and all along the roads milkweed pods began to spill white silky threads.
From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen
Unusually for a Saturday morning, it was deserted, so he picked five tulips for the bouquet.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
Their neighbors followed suit, and soon there were scores of street enclosures bright with tulips, daisies and geraniums.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
Garten arranges fresh orange tulips in drinking glasses and sets them along the middle of her table.
From Salon ● Nov. 18, 2025
As the film opens on Munchkinland, the camera follows perfect rows of colorful tulips.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2025
It is supposed to be a joke, as if Gram and Gramps were going away by themselves and might not reappear until the following spring when the tulips were in bloom.
From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
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