Definitions

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

  • adjective Relating to or characteristic of an herb as distinguished from a woody plant.
  • adjective Green and leaflike in appearance or texture.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or of the nature of herbs.
  • Feeding on vegetables; herbivorous.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to herbs; having the nature, texture, or characteristics, of an herb

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

  • adjective botany Not woody, lacking lignified tissues.
  • adjective wine Not woody in flavor

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

  • adjective characteristic of a nonwoody herb or plant part

Etymologies

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

[From Latin herbāceus, from herba, herb.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin herbāceus ("grassy").

Support

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

Examples

Comments

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

  • Another sunny day, I met you up in the garden

    You were digging plants, I dug you, beg your pardon

    I took a photograph of you in the herbaceous border

    It broke the heart of men and flowers and girls and trees.

    (Another sunny day, by Belle and Sebastian)

    April 28, 2008