bract

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
She wore a clinging dress of dull green stuff, which sheathed her delicate figure like a lily bract--her throat rose out of it like a lily stalk, and her face, with its small features and soft skin, was the face of a white flower.

View all »
Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A leaflike or scalelike plant part, usually small, sometimes showy or brightly colored, and located just below a flower, a flower stalk, or an inflorescence.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • The close up shot of the berries shows their striking navy blue color with the red bract. —  Ledge and Gardens
  • The lowest-spikelet in the raceme is female and this is enclosed in a bract which at length becomes hardened, polished and nut-like and the other spikelets above it are male. —  A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses
  • Inflorescence; 2. the female spikelet; 3. male spikelets; 4, 5, 6 and 8. the first, second, third and the fourth glume, respectively, of a male spikelet; 7 and 9. palea of the third and the fourth glumes, respectively The female spikelet is enclosed by a closed bract which finally becomes hardened, and there are four glumes in the spikelet. —  A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses
  • The ligule is a short stiff slightly lacerate membrane The leaf-blade is linear-lanceolate, finely acuminate, base narrowed into a petiole, scaberulous on both the surfaces The inflorescence consists of simple spikes, each in a spathiform bract, and forming clusters terminating the stem and the branches. —  A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses
  • Between the calyx and the corolla were three or four spathulate, hairy, bract-like organs; the corolla and stamens were unchanged; but in place of the usual four-lobed ovary there was a single carpel with a basilar style, terminated by a forked stigma. —  Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 98 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin bractea, gold leaf, perhaps from Greek brakhein, to rattle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French bractée, from Latin bractea, also brattea, a thin plate of metal, gold-leaf, veneer.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/brækt/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recently looked up

desuetude · firestorm · recent · penny-a-liner · chapped

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

silence · spell it rite · britney · bunda · settii