Definitions

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

  • noun Plant leaves, especially tree leaves, considered as a group.
  • noun A cluster of leaves.
  • noun An ornamental representation of leaves, stems, and flowers, especially in architecture.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Leaves in general; especially, growing leaves, collectively, in their natural form and condition.
  • noun A cluster of leaves, flowers, and branches; particularly, in architecture, the more or less conventionalized representation of leaves, flowers, and branches used to ornament and enrich capitals, friezes, pediments, etc.

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

  • noun Leaves, collectively, as produced or arranged by nature; leafage.
  • noun A cluster of leaves, flowers, and branches; especially, the representation of leaves, flowers, and branches, in architecture, intended to ornament and enrich capitals, friezes, pediments, etc.
  • noun (Bot.) any plant cultivated for the beauty of its leaves, as many kinds of Begonia and Coleus.
  • transitive verb rare To adorn with foliage or the imitation of foliage; to form into the representation of leaves.

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

  • noun The leaves of plants.
  • noun An architectural ornament representing foliage.

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

  • noun (architecture) leaf-like architectural ornament
  • noun the main organ of photosynthesis and transpiration in higher plants

Etymologies

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

[Alteration (influenced by Latin folium, leaf) of Middle English foilage, from Old French foillage, from foille, leaf; see foil.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French feuillage.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word foliage.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.