tumbleweed

American

[tuhm-buhl-weed] / ˈtʌm bəlˌwid /

noun

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.

tumbleweed British

/ ˈtʌmbəlˌwiːd /

noun

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

"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 tumbleweed

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

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.

The American West is in the grip of a tumbleweed takeover.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 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

If the sandstorm was really strong, it knocked you over, and you rolled around like you were a tumbleweed.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

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