Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A genus of plants, natural order Gramineæ, characterized by having large membranous outer glumes, which inclose two or three perfect flowers, each with a long, bent, and twisted awn on the back of the lower palet.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A genus of grasses, including the common oat (Avena sativa); the oat grasses.

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

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the tribe Aveneaegrasses, including the common oat (Avena sativa); the oat grasses.

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

  • noun oats

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin avēna ("oats")

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Examples

  • July 2008, a bill known as the Avena Case Implementation Act was introduced in the US House of Representatives.

    Amnesty International USA: Most Recent English News Releases 2009

  • Claiborne investigates and reports on expressions like sow one's wild oats, about which he tells us little or nothing: the modern Latinate designation Avena fatua came too many centuries after the original expression to have any relevance to it, so why bring up the information that fatua is Latin for ` foolish ': it was also Latin for ` wild,' which might be more to the point.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 3 1984

  • "What the pontiff needs is a passionate and sincere mea culpa so that the church can express regret for what happened and it can promise to take steps to prevent it from happening again," said Giovannu Avena, the editorial director of Adista, a liberal journal covering church events.

    Scandal threatens Pope Benedict's legacy 2010

  • A Princeton University research team, including (from left) undergraduate Elyse Powell, psychology professor Bart Hoebel, visiting research associate Nicole Avena and graduate student Miriam Bocarsly, has demonstrated that rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup — a sweetener found in many popular sodas — gain significantly more weight than those with access to water sweetened with table sugar

    Think Progress » GOP New Orleans Congressman: Health Reform ‘At A Par With Slavery’ Because Of Nonexistent Abortion Coverage 2010

  • Although the US federal government had been trying to convince the states holding the individuals to comply with the Avena decision, that effort was not sufficient to discharge the obligation to comply

    Avena Take Two : Law is Cool 2008

  • The Avena decision revolved around several Mexican nationals in prison or awaiting execution in the US.

    Avena Take Two : Law is Cool 2008

  • This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Avena Case Implementation Act of 2008’’.

    Avena Take Two : Law is Cool 2008

  • [S] ome defendants currently incarcerated in Texas and subject to Avena may not have received "review and reconsideration" of their claims of prejudice under the Vienna Convention on the merits.

    Avena/Medellín Update : Law is Cool 2008

  • Enhanced UV-B irradiation has no effect on photosynthetic characteristics of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and wild oat (Avena fatua L.) under greenhouse and field conditions.

    Effects of ultraviolet-B on forest vegetation in the Arctic 2009

  • I have determined, pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, that the United States will discharge its inter-national obligations under the decision of the International Court of Justice in the Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals Mexico v.

    "The president has exceeded his constitutional authority by intruding into the independent powers of the judiciary." Ann Althouse 2006

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