Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One of the often brightly colored parts of a flower immediately surrounding the reproductive organs; a division of the corolla.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In botany, a corollaleaf; one of the individual parts of a corolla in which they are distinct.
- noun In zoology, a petaloid ambulacrum, as that of a spatangoid or clypeastroid sea-urchin. See cuts under
ambulacrum and petalostichous.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) One of the leaves of the corolla, or the colored leaves of a flower. See
corolla , andIllust. offlower . - noun (Zoöl.) One of the expanded ambulacra which form a rosette on the black of certain Echini.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany one of the component parts of the
corolla of aflower , when this consists of separate parts, that is it is not fused. Petals are often brightlycolored . - noun Term of endearment.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun part of the perianth that is usually brightly colored
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word petal.
Examples
-
Also I have accepted the term petal -- but never the word lip -- as applied to flowers.
Proserpina, Volume 2 Studies Of Wayside Flowers John Ruskin 1859
-
Like with the Flower one petal is a dragonfly wing, what is the other image in the smoke?
-
The first petal is aligned with Mecca, to the Southwest of the project site.
SUSTAINABLE SPIRE: Twisting Ivory Observation Tower for Dubai | Inhabitat 2009
-
Moving clockwise at the top of the ZPO Tower, the second petal is directed toward the old town of Deira, a neighborhood of traditional souks, mosques, old fortress walls and wind towers.
SUSTAINABLE SPIRE: Twisting Ivory Observation Tower for Dubai | Inhabitat 2009
-
And yet, he makes us think that an artichoke petal is a person, and imbues that person with so much expression, simply by means of mechanical movement.
Mechanical Thinking and the Human Soul Heather McDougal 2007
-
And yet, he makes us think that an artichoke petal is a person, and imbues that person with so much expression, simply by means of mechanical movement.
Archive 2007-06-01 Heather McDougal 2007
-
He took a silk rose with the American flag screen printed on each petal from a wreath on the grave.
Bean, James E. 1977
-
The centre of the outer line of each petal is drawn out at the edge like the tails on the under wings of the Luna moth.
An Island Garden 1894
-
Each large outer petal is curved and cup-shaped, yet each has its finishing point which makes the blossom starry, and these eight inner
An Island Garden 1894
-
But this is not strictly correct; for instance, suppose a petal, which is very generally merely the sheath of
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.