Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several coneflowers of the genus Echinacea, having usually pinkish-purple ray flowers.
  • noun The roots, seeds, or other parts of such a plant, used in herbal medicine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of coarse composite plants of the prairies of North America, allied to Rudbeckia, but with long rose-colored rays and prickly-pointed chaff.

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

  • noun countable Any of several plants, of genus Echinacea, having pinkish-purple flowers.
  • noun uncountable A herbal medicine extracted from the roots and seeds of such plants.

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

  • noun small genus of North American coarse perennial herbs

Etymologies

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

[New Latin Echīnācea, genus name, from Latin echīnus, sea urchin (from its rough leaves); see echinus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From scientific Latin Echinacea, from Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος ("hedgehog") (because of the soft "spines" in the centre of the flower) +‎ -acea.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word echinacea.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • When I was first introduced to this, I comically confused it with echidna. I was very sick at the time.

    April 16, 2009

  • Nothing a little echidna tea wouldn't cure, I suspect.

    April 16, 2009