rosette

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

• noun An ornament or badge made of ribbon or silk that is pleated or gathered to resemble a rose and is given as an award, used to decorate clothing, or worn in the buttonhole of civilian dress to indicate the possession of certain medals or honors.
• noun A roselike marking or formation, such as one of the clusters of spots on a leopard's fur.
• noun Architecture A painted, carved, or sculptured ornament having a circular arrangement of parts radiating out from the center and suggesting the petals of a rose.
• noun Botany A circular cluster of leaves that radiate from a center at or close to the ground, as in the dandelion.
• noun An ornamental circular band surrounding the central hole of an acoustic guitar.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In electricity: A cluster of glow-lamps or of sockets arranged for the mounting of such lamps.
• noun An electrical fixture used when a branch is to be taken from the main wires. It consists, usually, of a porcelain base, which is fastened to a ceiling or other support, and a porcelain cover through a hole in which the branch wires run. Removing the cover disconnects the branch wires from the mains.
• noun Any circular ornament having many small parts in concentric circles, or regularly arranged around the center.
• noun Specifically— In architecture, an ornament of frequent use in decoration in all styles. In Roman architecture rosettes decorate coffers in ceilings and soffits of cornices, and appear as a central ornament of the abacus of the Corinthian order. In medieval architecture rosettes are abundant, and consist usually of a knot of foliage inscribed in a circle, trefoil, or quatrefoil. See also cut under patera.
• noun A knot of ribbon or a bunch of colored worsted used as an ornament of costume, especially one of the two bunches of ribbons attached to the loops by which an officer's gorget was suspended on his chest.
• noun Any object or arrangement resembling in form a full-blown rose.
• noun Same as roset.
• noun In zoology and anatomy, a natural formation of parts resembling a rose. See rose, 9.
• noun A curve whose polar equation is r = a + sin mθ, which presents a great variety of forms symmetrical about a center.
• noun Nautical, a form of knot.
• noun In metallurgy, a disk or plate formed by throwing water on melted metal. See rosette-copper, and compare quenching, 2.

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

• noun An imitation of a rose by means of ribbon or other material, -- used as an ornament or a badge.
• noun (Arch.) An ornament in the form of a rose or roundel, -much used in decoration.
• noun A red color. See Roset.
• noun A rose burner. See under Rose.
• noun Any structure having a flowerlike form; especially, the group of five broad ambulacra on the upper side of the spatangoid and clypeastroid sea urchins. See Illust. of Spicule, and Sand dollar, under Sand.
• noun A flowerlike color marking.

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

• noun An imitation of a rose by means of ribbon or other material, used especially as an ornament or a badge.
• noun architecture An ornament in the form of a rose or roundel, much used in decoration.
• noun A red color.
• noun A rose burner.
• noun botany One or more whorls of leaves, clustered tightly at the base of a plant.
• noun botany A plant growth form in which the plant grows outward in all directions for a short distance, producing a small round shape.
• noun zoology Any structure having a flowerlike form; especially, the group of five broad ambulacra on the upper side of the spatangoid and clypeastroid sea urchins.
• noun zoology A flowerlike color marking, as on the leopard.
• noun A floral pattern in latte art.
• noun medicine A clustered formation of tumor cells.

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

• noun a cluster of leaves growing in crowded circles from a common center or crown (usually at or close to the ground)
• noun circular window filled with tracery
• noun an ornament or pattern resembling a rose that is worn as a badge of office or as recognition of having won an honor
• noun rhizoctinia disease of potatoes