| / English Dictionary |
PERENNIAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
(botany) a plant lasting for three seasons or more
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("perennial" is a kind of...):
flora; plant; plant life ((botany) a living organism lacking the power of locomotion)
Domain category:
botany; phytology (the branch of biology that studies plants)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "perennial"):
button snakeroot; Eryngium yuccifolium; rattlesnake's master; rattlesnake master (coarse prickly perennial eryngo of United States thought to cure rattlesnake bite)
Derivation:
perennate (survive from season to season, of plants)
perennial (lasting three seasons or more)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Recurring again and again
Example:
perennial efforts to stipulate the requirements
Synonyms:
perennial; recurrent; repeated
Classified under:
Similar:
continual (recurring regularly or frequently in a prolonged and closely spaced series)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Lasting three seasons or more
Example:
the common buttercup is a popular perennial plant
Classified under:
Domain category:
botany; phytology (the branch of biology that studies plants)
Antonym:
annual (completing its life cycle within a year)
biennial (having a life cycle lasting two seasons)
Derivation:
perennial ((botany) a plant lasting for three seasons or more)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Lasting an indefinitely long time; suggesting self-renewal
Example:
perennial happiness
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
long (primarily temporal sense; being or indicating a relatively great or greater than average duration or passage of time or a duration as specified)
Context examples:
An herbal remedy derived from the dried root of Dioscorea villosa, a perennial vine native to North America, Mexico and Asia.
(Dioscorea villosa Tuber, NCI Thesaurus)
These are herbaceous, drought-tolerant perennial plants growing to 1 or 2 m in height.
(Echinacea, NCI Thesaurus)
The aromatic root of perennial herbs of Panax ginseng.
(Asian Ginseng, NCI Thesaurus)
A herbal remedy derived from the root of the perennial flowering plant Caulophyllum thalictroides grown in the eastern North America.
(Blue Cohosh Root, NCI Thesaurus)
The aromatic root of the perennial herb Panax quinquefolius, native to eastern North America.
(American Ginseng, NCI Thesaurus)
An herbal remedy containing parts of Leonurus cardiaca, a perennial plant in the mint family Lamiaceae.
(Motherwort, NCI Thesaurus)
And it chanced that the direction of my scientific studies, which led wholly towards the mystic and the transcendental, reacted and shed a strong light on this consciousness of the perennial war among my members.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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