Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various shrubs of the genus Rhododendron in the heath family, having showy, variously colored flowers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Azalea arborescens, a species growing in the Alleghanies, forming a small tree and bearing innumerable white and pink spicy-scented flowers.
  • noun A genus of ericaceous plants, now referred to Rhododendron.
  • noun [lowercase] A plant or flower belonging to this genus. See Rhododendron.
  • noun [lowercase] A name of a species of plants of the genus Loiseleuria, the Alpine azalea

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A genus of showy flowering shrubs, mostly natives of China or of North America; false honeysuckle. The genus is scarcely distinct from Rhododendron.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A plant of the obsolete genus Azalea.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of numerous ornamental shrubs grown for their showy flowers of various colors

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek azaleā, from feminine of azaleos, dry (so called because it grows in dry soil or from the texture of its wood); see as- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek ἀζαλέος (azaleos, "dry"), because it grows in dry soil.

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Examples

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  • Plath citations: see note at burdock.

    April 8, 2008