Definitions

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

  • noun One of the often brightly colored parts of a flower immediately surrounding the reproductive organs; a division of the corolla.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, a corollaleaf; one of the individual parts of a corolla in which they are distinct.
  • noun In zoology, a petaloid ambulacrum, as that of a spatangoid or clypeastroid sea-urchin. See cuts under ambulacrum and petalostichous.

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

  • noun (Bot.) One of the leaves of the corolla, or the colored leaves of a flower. See corolla, and Illust. of flower.
  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the expanded ambulacra which form a rosette on the black of certain Echini.

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

  • noun botany one of the component parts of the corolla of a flower, when this consists of separate parts, that is it is not fused. Petals are often brightly colored.
  • noun Term of endearment.

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

  • noun part of the perianth that is usually brightly colored

Etymologies

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

[New Latin petalum, from Greek petalon, leaf; see petə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πέταλον (petalon).

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