Definitions

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

  • noun A member of a formerly recognized taxonomic group that included all seedless plants and plantlike organisms, such as mosses, algae, ferns, lichens, and fungi.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cryptogamous plant; a plant of the class Cryptogamia.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A plant belonging to the Cryptogamia.

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

  • noun A member of a former taxonomic group of plants that reproduce using spores, such as ferns, mosses, algae, fungi, lichens or liverworts.

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

  • noun formerly recognized taxonomic group including all flowerless and seedless plants that reproduce by means of spores: ferns, mosses, algae, fungi

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin Cryptogamia, former group name : crypto– + -gamia, -gamy.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • not a typographical slip for cryptogram. Gr. kryptos, hidden + gamos, marriage — one whose reproduction is mysterious: a flowerless, seedless plant.

    February 28, 2007

  • The gam here is the same as gamete.

    February 28, 2007

  • Great word, sarra! Thanks.

    February 28, 2007

  • Spoiler alert, because the ad said cryptograms and not cryptograms, we got a seaweed expert working on the Enigma Code and it ultimately helped. https://youtu.be/N8jeYeWz-NM

    January 26, 2024