Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several eastern Asian plants of the genus Aspidistra in the lily family, especially A. elatior, which has large evergreen basal leaves and small, brownish bell-shaped flowers and is widely cultivated as a houseplant. Also called cast-iron plant.
Wiktionary
- n. any of several Asian plants, of the genus Aspidistra, having large leaves and small bell-shaped flowers; widely cultivated as a houseplant
Etymologies
- New Latin Aspidistra, genus name, from Greek aspis, aspid-, shield. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“_Aspidistra_ -- The aspidistra is the toughest of all foliage plants -- if not of all house plants.”
“The office was small, windowless with cinderblock walls, minimally furnished with a battered desk, a few chairs, a repellent aspidistra.”
“Gordon marries the mother-to-be of his child, takes the job at the New Albion, where he creates a successful ad campaign for foot deodorant, and even buys an aspidistra, the symbol he had long derided of “mingy lower-middle class decency,” installing it in the front window of their apartment for all the world to see.”
“He watched proceedings from the aspidistra side, while they watched from the pillars.”
“He reeks with emetic language that can only make grown men long for a quiet corner, an aspidistra, a handkerchief, and the old heave-ho.”
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“But even a potted aspidistra or two can make difference by oxygenating your workspace, whether you work at home or not.”
“Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidistra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs.”
“Not sure the comedy was intentional half the time, but who could argue with a giant aspidistra ordering a dragon (morphed into some sort of shambolic tramp-butler) and another dragon (morphed into esteemed newsreader Moira Stewart) to direct a vortex to vapourise 'celebrities' such as Keith Chegwin on a weekly basis?”
““The fronds of the aspidistra only partly concealed the commercial traveller —””
“Orwell loved England, yes, but Hitchens's way of taking us through Orwell's England is through the oddest trajectory encompassing the metric system, the significance of the adverb '' beastly, '' love of animals and nature, and a very long parenthetical aside on the aspidistra.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘aspidistra’.
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Mirrored Vowels
Rules:
• The word must have an even number of vowels.
• There must be four or more vowels; thus, at minimum, an A-A-A-A or A-B-B-A pattern.
• The vowels must appear in a mir...feminine, solicitor, caruncular, repackager, semiprimes, fetishises, decomposer, demonlover, recomposer, sepultures, lipotropic, colesterol and 385 more...
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Irony
A list about iron, irons, and irony.
iron, irons, irony, Jeremy Irons, ferritin, ferruginous duck, ferruginous, ironing, hematite, limonite, magnetite, taconite and 144 more...
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rodrigo's list
aspidistra, mosaic, murmur, sussuration, clap, assiduous, hasp, clench, rhythm, solemn, seldom, slash and 18 more...
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Favorites!
These are just cool words. Either they mean something interesting, or they sound neat.
aspidistra, acrimonious, floccinaucinihili..., mulligatawny, avgolemono, lobscouse, lethologica, petrichor, apricity, pamplemousse
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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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O! Timballo
for the same
tea-poy, pooking fork, ait, eyot, quodlibet, milk leg, tussie-mussie, calash, gueules, caitiff, bindery, demi-rep and 228 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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words that trip off the tongue
ideology, phallocentric, parapraxis, gelid, illusion, tangible, tangibility, crux, medusa, noir, chloroform, chap and 98 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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Number 9 Dream
By David Mitchell
slag-heap, coracle, unsilt, aquiline, crispen, treatise, hippocampus, fortuitous, megalomania, malinger, dreck, escarpment and 97 more...
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Opethead's list
All Words
deplore, immense, ominouse, dilapidated, dunghill, admonitary, procuring, legilimens, mediocre, implicitly, beseechingly, imperiously and 170 more...
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Middle Class Words
For those of us who think they are middle class.
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pamelad's Words
lugubrious, antediluvian, decrepitude, anomaly, regurgitate, apoplexy, prolix, incapacitate, discontinuity, bellicose, inclement, frangible and 158 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for aspidistra.
gootnbewg Used by George Orwell and Gracie Fields. Common in 19th century middle class England. Oh! It's a plant! Sep 8, 2011
reesetee Keep it flying. :-) Nov 20, 2007