Definitions

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

  • noun Any of various plants of the genus Brassica of the mustard family, including cabbage and broccoli.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of cruciferous plants, including more than a hundred species, all of which are natives of Europe and northern Asia.

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

  • proper noun (Bot.) A genus of plants embracing several species and varieties differing much in appearance and qualities: such as the common cabbage (Brassica oleracea), broccoli, cauliflowers, etc.; the wild turnip (Brassica campestris); the common turnip (Brassica rapa); the rape or coleseed (Brassica napus), etc.

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

  • noun Any of many plants of the genus Brassica, including cabbage, mustard and rapes

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

  • noun mustards: cabbages; cauliflowers; turnips; etc.

Etymologies

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

[New Latin Brassica, genus name, from Latin brassica, cabbage.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin brassica

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Examples

Comments

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  • “The dish turned out fine, but I had unknowingly and luckily avoided producing a rotten egg stink. Brussels sprouts — and other vegetables of the Brassica family, including cabbage — release hydrogen sulfide as they cook, particularly when boiled for too long.�?

    The New York Times, At the Stove, a Dash of Science, a Pinch of Folklore, by Kenneth Chang, January 5, 2009

    January 8, 2009

  • Sounds like one of those Hollywood couple blendings.

    January 8, 2009

  • While brassica as such only entered English in 1832, I discover to my surprise that a work of about 1420 used it in the form brassik. At that time presumably it could only have meant "cabbage" because none of the other forms existed.

    March 21, 2009