Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several herbs of the genus Centaurium, especially a Eurasian species (C. erythraea) that has clusters of pink flowers and has long been used in herbal medicine.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The popular name of various plants, chiefly of the knapweed, Centaurea nigra.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A gentianaceous plant not fully identified. The name is usually given to the Erytheræa Centaurium and the Chlora perfoliata of Europe, but is also extended to the whole genus Sabbatia, and even to the unrelated Centaurea.

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

  • noun Any of the flowering plants in the genus Centaurium.

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

  • noun any plant of the genus Centaurea
  • noun any of various plants of the genus Centaurium

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English centaurie, from Latin centaurēum, from Greek kentaureion, from Kentauros, centaur (from the legend that the plant's medicinal properties were discovered by the centaur Chiron).]

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