AMBROSIA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ambrosia mean? 

• AMBROSIA (noun)
  The noun AMBROSIA has 4 senses:

1. a mixture of nectar and pollen prepared by worker bees and fed to larvae

2. any of numerous chiefly North American weedy plants constituting the genus Ambrosia that produce highly allergenic pollen responsible for much hay fever and asthma

3. fruit dessert made of oranges and bananas with shredded coconut

4. (classical mythology) the food and drink of the gods; mortals who ate it became immortal

  Familiarity information: AMBROSIA used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AMBROSIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mixture of nectar and pollen prepared by worker bees and fed to larvae

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

ambrosia; beebread

Hypernyms ("ambrosia" is a kind of...):

composition (a mixture of ingredients)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of numerous chiefly North American weedy plants constituting the genus Ambrosia that produce highly allergenic pollen responsible for much hay fever and asthma

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

ambrosia; bitterweed; ragweed

Hypernyms ("ambrosia" is a kind of...):

weed (any plant that crowds out cultivated plants)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ambrosia"):

Ambrosia artemisiifolia; common ragweed (annual weed with finely divided foliage and spikes of green flowers; common in North America; introduced elsewhere accidentally)

Ambrosia trifida; great ragweed (a coarse annual with some leaves deeply and palmately three-cleft or five-cleft)

Ambrosia psilostachya; perennial ragweed; western ragweed (coarse perennial ragweed with creeping roots of dry barren lands of southwestern United States and Mexico)

Holonyms ("ambrosia" is a member of...):

genus Ambrosia (comprising the ragweeds; in some classification considered the type genus of a separate family Ambrosiaceae)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Fruit dessert made of oranges and bananas with shredded coconut

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("ambrosia" is a kind of...):

afters; dessert; sweet (a dish served as the last course of a meal)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(classical mythology) the food and drink of the gods; mortals who ate it became immortal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

ambrosia; nectar

Hypernyms ("ambrosia" is a kind of...):

dainty; delicacy; goody; kickshaw; treat (something considered choice to eat)

Domain category:

classical mythology (the system of mythology of the Greeks and Romans together; much of Roman mythology (especially the gods) was borrowed from the Greeks)

Derivation:

ambrosial (worthy of the gods)

 Context examples 

We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)