tumbleweed

American  

[tuhm-buhl-weed] / ˈtʌm bəlˌwid /

noun

tumbleweeds plural

1. any of various plants, as Amaranthus albus, A. graecizans, or the Russian thistle, Salsola kali, whose branching upper parts become detached from the roots and are driven about by the wind.

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tumbleweed British  

/ ˈtʌmbəlˌwiːd /

noun

1. any densely branched plant that breaks off near the ground on withering and is rolled about by the wind, esp one of several amaranths of the western US and Australia

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tumbleweeds
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tumbleweed

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90; tumble + weed ¹

Example Sentences

In a spot that AT&T introduced in October, actor Luke Wilson pulls a newspaper out of a tumbleweed and reads, “T-Mobile most challenged for deceptive ads.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 14, 2025

Now it has transformed itself into tumbleweed proper, sidling and bouncing wherever the wind chooses.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 2025

L.A. was a tumbleweed boomtown whose population had doubled in one decade and quintupled in the next, morphing from village to metropolis in a generation.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 10, 2025

Rust depicts the manhunt for grandfather and grandson amidst a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and tumbleweed dirt towns.

From BBC • Nov. 20, 2024

A big tumbleweed might hit you, but they were light and bouncy and didn’t hurt.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls