Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Silky.
- adj. Botany Covered with soft silky hairs.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Containing, pertaining to, or consisting of silk; having the character of silk; silky.
- Resembling silk; silky or satiny in appearance; smooth, soft, and shiny, as the plumage of a bird, the surface of an insect, etc.
- In botany, silky; covered with soft shining hairs pressed close to the surface: as, a sericeous leaf.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or relating to silk; consisting of silk; silky.
- adj. botany Covered with very soft hairs pressed close to the surface.
- adj. zoology Having a silky lustre, usually due to fine, close hairs.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to silk; consisting of silk; silky.
- adj. (Bot.) Covered with very soft hairs pressed close to the surface.
- adj. (Zoöl.) Having a silklike luster, usually due to fine, close hairs.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. covered with fine soft hairs or down
Etymologies
- Latin sericus silken, sericum Seric stuff, silk, from Sericus belonging to the Seres, Ancient Greek a people of Eastern Asia, the modern Chinese, celebrated for their silken fabrics. Compare silk, serge a woollen stuff. (Wiktionary)
- Latin sēriceus, silken, alteration of sēricus; see serge1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“DAVIESIA, JACKSONIA, and two or three dwarf species of ACACIA, one of which was very showy, about three feet high, with very small oblong, sericeous phyllodia, and globular heads of bright yellow flowers, produced in great abundance on axillary fascicles; also a very fine leguminous shrub, bearing the habit and appearance of”
“Abdomen smooth and shining; the apical margins of the intermediate segments slightly depressed, with the sides sericeous.”
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology
“Abdomen shining, and with a fine silvery sericeous pile; the apical margins of the segments narrowly rufo-piceous; the terminal segment with an elongate, smooth, shining space, which extends to the apex, which is testaceous.”
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology
“Thorax: the metathorax finely transversely rugose, the sides with bright silvery-white pubescence; the coxæ, the thorax beneath and on the sides, with fine silky sericeous pile; the anterior tibiæ and tarsi, and all the femora at their apex beneath, ferruginous; wings hyaline and iridescent, nervures black; the outer margin of the tegulæ testaceous.”
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology
“Thorax: the disk very closely punctured, the metathorax rugose; the sides and the legs with a fine glittering sericeous pile, the wings subhyaline, their apical margins fuscous, the nervures fuscous.”
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 Zoology
“It is closely allied to undidatiis, Say, but is more sericeous, the elytial lines are not so dilated or confluent, &c.”
Internet Archive: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
“[The one with singularly thick, firm, and rigid leaves, a foot long, linear attenuated at each extremity, pubescenti-sericeous, striated: the other with white acerose leaves pinnated in two pairs.”
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
“*] [* The one with singularly thick, firm, and rigid leaves, a foot long, linear attenuated at each extremity, pubescenti-sericeous, striated: the other with white acerose leaves pinnated in two pairs.”
Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sericeous’.
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
syzygy, systyle, systematology, systatic, syssitia, syrtic, systaltic, syrt, syrinx, syphilomania, syphilology, syntrierarch and 1593 more...
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Silk
filator, quadrivoltine, trivoltin, trivoltine, trigoneutic, grasserie, grege, samia cynthia, Bombyx, bombycid, silkworm, silk moth and 108 more...
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Descriptive
The present, the future. Goals, wishes, hopes.
capricious, sericeous, sleek, flawless, charming, skilled, long-haired, versatile, beautiful, witty, fair, thin and 145 more...
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Uncle John’s Interesting Words
Words I find interesting.
abecedarius, acomoclitic, aperçu, apophenia, aspic, bêtise, bhang, callipygian, calque, carking, cataphract, ceruminous and 97 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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technomom's Words
misology, sacerdotal, omphaloskepsis, jimjams, incunabulum, repose, trecento, chimera, tridecennary, tenebrous, purblind, floruit and 207 more...
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The sound of the thing
Just rolls off, out, over the tongue, palate, larynx...
requiem, quarantine, mizzenmast, jib, lingua franca, harpsichord, soliloquy, quay, memento mori, satchel, tremolo, phantasmagoria and 15 more...
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Words kirby1024 has recorded pronounc...
The list of words that kirby1024 has gotten around to recording pronounciations for.
the, testosterone, estrogen, cache, memory, antimnemonic, politics, gynophagia, prophylactic, proletariat, beguile, Vegemite and 36 more...
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gregorysandals's Words
ontological, thereabouts, succor, mudita, nevertheless, dissever, sepulchre, weir, corona, sericeous, penultimate, doff and 25 more...
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Wild About Hairy
Hairy words. Much pilfered from G. Cook's Hairy list.
woolly, whiskered, villous, unshorn, unshaven, tufted, stubbly, shaggy, pubescent, pilose, piligerous, piliferous and 58 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sericeous.
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