Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of numerous, usually bulbous plants of the genus Allium in the lily family, having long stalks bearing clusters of variously colored flowers and including many ornamental and food plants, such as onions, leeks, chives, garlic, and shallots.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The largest genus of plants of the natural order Liliaceæ, of about 300 species, natives, with few exceptions, of the northern temperate zone. They are bulbous plants, with a peculiar pungent odor, and bear their flowers in an umbel at the summit of a scape. Several species have been largely cultivated for food from very early times, including the onion (A. Cepa), leek (A. Porrum), shallot (A. Ascalonicum), garlic (A. sativum), chives (A. Schænoprasum), rocambole (A. Scorodoprasum), etc.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (bot.) A genus of plants, including the onion, garlic, leek, chive, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. large genus of perennial and biennial pungent bulbous plants: garlic; leek; onion; chive; sometimes placed in family Alliaceae as the type genus
Etymologies
- Latin, garlic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Garlic, the most potent member of the family called allium that includes onions, shallots, chives and leeks, known for hundreds, if not thousands of years as a tool to ward off evil, may have gained this reputation for its wide-ranging health benefits.”
“It puts forward the idea that Earth is a globular allium and "pain and fear" are the lachrymatory agents that provoke all the tears.”
The Guardian: Readers recommend songs about vegetables: The results
“When the fire's good and hot, run the allium up and down the grates with a fork to remove the residue.”
“Photograph by Tara Donne for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Martha Bernabe, Prop Styling by Angharad Bailey Mixing rosemary, dill, mint, white allium and scabiosa Step One Using a mix of leggy and dense herbs—rosemary, yellow flowering dill, mountain mint—build a framework of textures and fragrances.”
“Step Two We added a pop of white with allium scattered throughout the greenery at varying heights.”
“Chives, shallots, leeks—they are all considered varieties of onion from the Latin allium .”
“Separately, sauté the shallots (the onion wannabe of the allium world).”
“In an effort to protect her flock, Sandrow planted a wide variety of feather-like foliage, ostrich ferns, corkscrew grass, tall flowering balls of purple allium and bristling shrubs of juniper and cyprus that camouflage the birds' exotic plumage thereby protecting them from the hawks circling above.”
The Huffington Post: Gabrielle Selz: The Egg, Inside and Out
“Some are small and tight and barely bigger than a golf ball, others sweet and juicy with an altogether softer tone, and some with only the merest hint of allium about them.”
“Bart Ziegler Artemisia 'Oriental Limelight,' with its plumes of yellow-green leaves (center) provides a striking contrast to the purple salvia (foreground) and globes of violet allium in my spring garden shown last year, but it threatens to take over the flower bed.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘allium’.
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 327 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (A)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
abalone, abbey, abundant, aconite, acorn, addled, adept, aeon, aerie, aglow, ague, aire and 99 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1387 more...
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Me
asativum, allium, alliaceae, asparagales, liliopsida, plantae
Tweets
Looking for tweets for allium.
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