compass plant

com·pass plant

C c

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [kuhm-puh s plant, plahnt]
- /ˈkʌm pəs plænt, plɑnt/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [kuhm-puh s plant, plahnt]
- /ˈkʌm pəs plænt, plɑnt/

Definitions of compass plant words

noun compass plant a tall plant, Silphium laciniatum, of central North America, that has yellow flowers and lower leaves that tend to align themselves at right angles to the strongest light, esp in a north-south plane: family Asteraceae (composites) 3
noun compass plant any of several similar plants 3
noun compass plant a coarse plant (Silphium laciniatum) of the composite family, with large, bristly leaves and heads of yellow flowers, found on the prairies of central U.S.: the leaves reputedly point in a north-and-south direction 3
noun compass plant any of various other plants whose leaves supposedly point to the north and south 3
noun compass plant any of various plants having leaves that tend to lie in a plane at right angles to the strongest light, hence usually north and south, especially Silphium laciniatum. 1
noun compass plant Any of several plants, the leaves of which become oriented to the morning sun. 0

See all 6 definitions of compass plant

Information block about the term

Origin of compass plant

First appearance:

before 1840

One of the 33% newest English words

First recorded in 1840-50

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Compass plant

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Compass plant

compass plant popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 34% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 68% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

compass plant usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

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