Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of eastern Asiatic and American evergreen shrubs, belonging to the natural order Magnoliaceæ.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A genus of Asiatic and American magnoliaceous trees, having star-shaped fruit; star anise. The fruit of Illicium anisatum is used as a spice in India, and its oil is largely used in Europe for flavoring cordials, being almost identical with true oil of anise.

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

  • noun ichthyology The modified dorsal fin on the head of anglerfish, acting as a lure.

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

  • noun anise trees: evergreen trees with aromatic leaves

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin illicio ("entice")

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Examples

  • License: GPL download (20 KByte) donate send to a friend subscription other artwork from envyouraudience slashdot it digg it del. icio.us fresh by illicium on: Oct 26 2008 illicium

    GNOME-Look.org Content 2008

  • Hmmmmm. Look at all those semi-foreign words above: globose, illicium, gelatinous -- all of a sudden I got me a hankerin 'for some Arby's.

    Mitchieville 2008

  • They possess an illicium and esca; the former being a modified dorsal spine-the "fishing rod" - and the latter being the bulbous, bioluminescent "fishing lure".

    Mitchieville 2008

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