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houseleek

house·leek
H h

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [hous-leek]
    • /ˈhaʊsˌlik/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [hous-leek]
    • /ˈhaʊsˌlik/

Definitions of houseleek word

  • noun houseleek Also called old-man-and-old-woman. a succulent plant, Sempervivum tectorum, of the stonecrop family, native to Europe, having reddish flowers and leaves forming dense basal rosettes. 1
  • noun houseleek any other plant of the genus Sempervivum. 1
  • noun houseleek A succulent plant with rosettes of fleshy leaves and small pink flowers. Houseleeks grow on walls and roofs, and are popular cultivated plants. 1
  • noun houseleek any Old World crassulaceous plant of the genus Sempervivum, esp S. tectorum, which has a rosette of succulent leaves and pinkish flowers: grows on walls 0
  • noun houseleek sempervivum 0
  • noun houseleek Any of several succulent plants, of the genus Sempervivum, having a rosette of fleshy leaves. 0
See all 6 definitions of houseleek

Information block about the term

Origin of houseleek

First appearance:

before 1325
One of the 16% oldest English words
First recorded in 1325-75, houseleek is from the Middle English word howsleke. See house, leek

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Houseleek

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Full grammatical hierarchy of Houseleek

houseleek popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 54% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.
According to our data about 66% 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.

houseleek usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Related words

  • sempervivum

    any of various succulent plants belonging to the genus Sempervivum, of the stonecrop family, having leaves in dense basal rosettes and a compact, flat-topped cluster of flowers, and including the houseleek, S. tectorum, and other commonly cultivated species.

  • cobweb houseleek

    a small southern European plant, Sempervivum arachoideum, of the stonecrop family, having a dense, globular cluster of cobwebby leaves and red flowers on hairy stalks.

  • hen-and-chickens

    any of several succulent plants that grow in clusters or colonies formed by runners or offshoots, as those of the genera Echeveria and Sempervivum.

  • old-man-and-woman

    houseleek (def 1).

  • parastichy

    one of a number of seemingly secondary spirals or oblique ranks winding around the stem or axis to the right and left in a spiral arrangement of leaves, scales, etc., where the internodes are short and the members closely crowded, as in the houseleek and the pine cone.

  • sedum

    any fleshy plant belonging to the genus Sedum, of the stonecrop family, usually having small, overlapping leaves and yellow, white, or pink flowers.
All related words to houseleek

See also

Matching words

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