Definitions

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

  • noun Any of numerous plants of the genus Ranunculus, having yellow or white usually five-petaled flowers, and including the buttercups and the crowfoots.

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

  • noun Any plant of the genus Ranunculus; the buttercup or crowfoot.

Etymologies

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

[New Latin Rānunculus, genus name, from Latin rānunculus, a kind of medicinal plant, diminutive of rāna, frog, perhaps of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin rānunculus.

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Examples

  • _ A species of crow-foot, or ranunculus, growing plentifully in pastures; _ranunculus pratensis.

    The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire James Jennings

  • In Germany, the moss rose is known as the ranunculus rose.

    BellaOnline - The Voice of Women 2008

  • He had overheard his mom brag about the "killing" she had made on some cripple ranunculus (the lady at the supermarket practically gave the flowers away, rather than toss them out).

    Brocante / Antiques 2010

  • So when Glenn came knocking on her door a year after she walked out of his, bearing a bouquet of out-of-season ranunculus, she welcomed him back with cautiously open arms, sick of hoping to meet him, ready to be an us again.

    Georgia’s Kitchen Jenny Nelson 2010

  • And the challenges arrived: Stories with titles like “She Killed Me Twice”, “The Brain That Exploded”, “The Pachyderm Wore Pink” and “Single White Fee Male” with words like ranunculus, vaginate and carronade. 300 stories later, here for the first time in print are 180 of the best.

    Srs Book Lnx - I mean, for real — check these out for lo, they contain much awesomeness 2009

  • I've been putting little bunches of one kind of bloom or tree, in this case into tiny Moroccan-style shot glasses I found at Sur La Table this past weekend, and I bought a gorgeous bunch of ranunculus at the farmer's market that is a perfect fit for the Austrian pottery vase I stole from my mother:

    Archive 2009-03-01 Kiki 2009

  • I've been putting little bunches of one kind of bloom or tree, in this case into tiny Moroccan-style shot glasses I found at Sur La Table this past weekend, and I bought a gorgeous bunch of ranunculus at the farmer's market that is a perfect fit for the Austrian pottery vase I stole from my mother:

    Come Out to Ramble Kiki 2009

  • The calendula and ranunculus photos came out the best, but do not really convey those gardens personalities.

    Experiencing Chicago « Fairegarden 2009

  • I can never ever get enough peonies or ranunculus.

    Archive 2008-03-01 2008

  • What a beautiful shot--and I love peonies and ranunculus ranunculi?

    Pretty Flowers 2008

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