Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See graphite.
- n. Any of various plants of the genus Plumbago; leadwort.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Black-lead; graphite. See graphite.
- n. [capitalized] [NL. (Tournefort, 1700).] A genus of plants, the leadworts, of the order Plumbagineæ and tribe Plumbageæ. characterized by a glandular calyx with five short erect teeth, a salver-shaped corolla with slender tube, free stamens, and five styles united into one nearly to the top. The 10 species are natives of warm climates, extending to southern Europe and central Asia. They are usually perennial herbs, with long branches, or partly climbing, bearing alternate clasping leaves, and spikes of blue flowers (or of other colors) at the end of the branches. Several species, bearing the name leadwort, are in common cultivation; another, P. scandens, a trailing white-flowered species, is native to the south of Florida, extending thence to Brazil, and known, like
P. Europæa , as loothwort, from the use to which its caustic leaves and roots are put. P. rosea is used in India to produce blisters.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Min.) Same as graphite.
- n. (Bot.) A genus of herbaceous plants with pretty salver-shaped corollas, usually blue or violet; leadwort.
WordNet 3.0
- n. used as a lubricant and as a moderator in nuclear reactors
- n. any plumbaginaceous plant of the genus Plumbago
Etymologies
- From Latin plumbāgō, from plumbum ("lead"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin plumbāgō, lead ore, from plumbum, lead. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Graphite, locally known as plumbago, the only commercial mineral of the country, might be seen in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy.”
Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
“Here are the magnolia, the laurel, the Japanese medlar, the oleander, the pepper, the bay, the date-palm, a tree called the plumbago, another from the Cape of Good”
The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner
“Carbon, combined with a small quantity of iron, forms a compound called plumbago, or black-lead, of which pencils are made.”
“The pureness of whites in some celebrated old pictures is rather to be attributed to a proper method of using, careful preservation of the work, and in many instances to the introduction of ultramarine or a permanent cold colour into the white -- such as plumbago -- helped also by judicious contrast.”
Field's Chromatography or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists
“The greatest standby to the amateur gardener should undoubtedly be the blue-flowered shrub known as "plumbago".”
“A few that come to mind — Mertensia virginica Virginia bluebells, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Perennial plumbago, and this little beauty.”
Now showing: Veronica ped. ‘Georgia Blue’ « Sugar Creek Gardens’ Blog
“A few that come to mind — Mertensia virginica Virginia bluebells, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Perennial plumbago, and this little [...]”
Virginia bluebells: a kaleidoscope of spring color « Sugar Creek Gardens’ Blog
“I've got a feeling the BLUE plant in the terracotta pot is a plumbago (is it, Kristin?) ... having a friendly conversation with the RED busy lizzies in the old bucket.”
“So, yes, in blue, I'm sure now it is a plumbago, but the red flowers "dans le seau" (in the bucket) are not busy lizzies - and not geraniums either.”
“So, yes, in blue, I'm sure now it is a plumbago, but the red flowers "dans le seau" in the bucket are not busy lizzies - and not geraniums either.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘plumbago’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pustule, purulence, pushful, purser, purpureal, putative, purpure, purpresture, purloin, purline, purlieu, purlicue and 1766 more...
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CHEM - early chemistry terms
coined by Alchemists and scientists of the Enlightment
green lion, spirit of salt, butter of antimony, flower of zinc, spirit of hartshorn, salt of hartshorn, narcotic salt of ..., blue vitriol, fixed air, regulus of antimony, crucible, sal ammoniac and 31 more...
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Words descriptive of the colour of th...
sloe, hyaline, dull, turquoise, slate, snotgreen, ultramarine, glaucous, murky, ashen, wine-dark, claret and 32 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
dark and bright words of shine and fi...
scotophil, scotoma, scotia, shed, shadow, shade, scone, whiting, edelweiss, light, lightning, lucina and 349 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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wiredweird's Words
cubane, diyne, logit, cnidoblast, fid, witling, probit, nullipara, menstruum, scrotal, carbonium, amitotic and 107 more...
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...another list...
I've no idea where I got this page full of words, but whatever it is, I want to find it again. May have duplicate words from other lists.
bicameral, aphelion, dirigible, parhelion, flocculus, vernier, corticate, oxalis, pandanus, calabash, plumbago, jonquil and 217 more...
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p is for...
my favorite voiceless bilabial plosive.
panacea, persnickety, panache, provenance, preternatural, penumbra, perfunctory, perspicacity, potentate, pinguid, plainsong, pleonastic and 228 more...
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fake words, meant to be amusing
generally obtained by a small perturbation of an existing word, e.g. by changing a single letter, or by coining a portmanteau word
porcubine, vanatee, slobster, shopgifter, millihelen, rumbat, bozon, dopeler effect, mach turtle, octopuss, eskimo pi, cannape and 200 more...
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Pierre's Words
zygophyllaceous, sylvan, raiment, phantasmagoria, schadenfreude, antediluvian, sojourner, cerulean, dysphoria, orthogonal, frenetic, cerulean and 4 more...
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Words that make me giggle
Some words are just plain fun to say... they give me a smirk or chuckle to read and think about or to randomly spout aloud and bemuse my children.
galoshes, gadzooks, gigawatt, lederhosen, mojo, nipperkin, alleyoop, cappiburra, cootie, deeley-bobber, farkus, gobbledygook and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for plumbago.
sionnach Back pain induced by sitting unnaturally straight for long periods of time. Nov 16, 2007