FERN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fern mean? 

• FERN (noun)
  The noun FERN has 1 sense:

1. any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores

  Familiarity information: FERN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FERN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

nonflowering plant; pteridophyte (plants having vascular tissue and reproducing by spores)

Meronyms (parts of "fern"):

fern seed (the asexual spore of ferns that resembles dust; once thought to be seeds and to make the possessor invisible)

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

bead fern; Onoclea sensibilis; sensitive fern (beautiful spreading fern of eastern North America and eastern Asia naturalized in western Europe; pinnately divided fronds show a slight tendency to fold when touched; pinnules enclose groups of sori in beadlike lobes)

annual fern; Anogramma leptophylla; Jersey fern (small short-lived fern of Central and South America)

maidenhair; maidenhair fern (any of various small to large terrestrial ferns of the genus Adiantum having delicate palmately branched fronds)

Acrostichum aureum; golden fern; leather fern (stout tropical swamp fern (especially tropical America) having large fronds with golden yellow sporangia covering the undersides)

sword fern (any of several tropical ferns having more or less sword-shaped fronds including one from which the Boston fern developed)

oleander fern; Oleandra mollis; Oleandra neriiformis (tropical fern having leathery fronds resembling oleander; found from Asia to Polynesia)

woodsia (any fern of the genus Woodsia)

Indian button fern; Tectaria macrodonta (fern of tropical Asia having round buttonlike bulbils)

button fern; Tectaria cicutaria (Jamaican fern having round buttonlike bulbils)

leather fern; leatherleaf fern; Polystichum adiantiformis; Rumohra adiantiformis; ten-day fern (widely distributed fern of tropical southern hemisphere having leathery pinnatifid fronds)

holly fern (any of various ferns of the genus Polystichum having fronds with texture and gloss like holly)

canker brake; Christmas fern; dagger fern; evergreen wood fern; Polystichum acrostichoides (North American evergreen fern having pinnate leaves and dense clusters of lance-shaped fronds)

lip fern; lipfern (any of various terrestrial ferns of the genus Cheilanthes; cosmopolitan in arid and semiarid temperate or tropical regions)

hart's-tongue; hart's-tongue fern; Olfersia cervina; Polybotria cervina; Polybotrya cervina (tropical American terrestrial fern with leathery lanceolate fronds; sometimes placed in genus Polybotrya)

fiddlehead; Matteuccia struthiopteris; Onoclea struthiopteris; ostrich fern; Pteretis struthiopteris; shuttlecock fern (tall fern of northern temperate regions having graceful arched fronds and sporophylls resembling ostrich plumes)

Gymnocarpium robertianum; limestone fern; northern oak fern (yellow-green fern of rocky areas of northern hemisphere)

Gymnocarpium dryopteris; oak fern; Thelypteris dryopteris (bright blue-green fern widely distributed especially in damp acid woodlands of temperate northern hemisphere)

Athyrium thelypteroides; Deparia acrostichoides; silvery spleenwort (fern with elongate silvery outgrowths enclosing the developing spores)

bladder fern (any fern of the genus Cystopteris characterized by a hooded indusium or bladderlike membrane covering the sori)

Cyrtomium aculeatum; holly fern; Polystichum aculeatum (tropical Old World fern having glossy fronds suggestive of holly; sometimes placed in genus Polystichum)

Athyrium pycnocarpon; Diplazium pycnocarpon; glade fern; narrow-leaved spleenwort; silvery spleenwort (North American fern with narrow fronds on yellowish leafstalks)

Athyrium filix-femina; lady fern (most widely grown fern of the genus Athyrium for its delicate foliage)

wood-fern; wood fern; woodfern (any of various ferns of the genus Dryopteris)

brake (any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants)

beech fern (any fern of the genus Phegopteris having deeply cut triangular fronds)

Massachusetts fern; Parathelypteris simulata; Thelypteris simulata (delicate feathery shield fern of the eastern United States; sometimes placed in genus Thelypteris)

Dryopteris noveboracensis; New York fern; Parathelypteris novae-boracensis (slender shield fern of moist woods of eastern North America; sometimes placed in genus Dryopteris)

Dryopteris oreopteris; mountain fern; Oreopteris limbosperma (common European mountain fern having fragrant lemon or balsam scented fronds)

christella (any of several tropical ferns of the genus Christella having thin brittle fronds)

Dryopteris thelypteris; marsh fern; Thelypteris palustris (fern having pinnatifid fronds and growing in wet places; cosmopolitan in north temperate regions)

Marattia salicina; potato fern (large Australasian evergreen fern with an edible rhizome sometimes used as a vegetable by indigenous people)

Pteris serrulata; ribbon fern; spider fern (fern of North Africa and Azores and Canary Islands)

Pteris multifida; spider brake; spider fern (Asiatic fern introduced in America)

Pteris cretica (cultivated in many varieties as houseplants)

buckler fern; shield fern (any of various ferns of the genera Dryopteris or Polystichum or Lastreopsis having somewhat shield-shaped coverings on the sori)

gold fern; Pityrogramma chrysophylla (fern of West Indies and South America having fronds with bright golden-yellow undersides)

golden fern; Pityrogramma calomelanos aureoflava (tropical American fern having fronds with light golden undersides)

Pityrogramma calomelanos; silver fern (tropical American fern having fronds with white undersides)

Pityrogramma argentea; silver fern (fern of southern tropical Africa having fronds with white undersides)

button fern; Pellaea rotundifolia (fern of New Zealand and Australia having trailing fronds with dark green buttonlike leaflets)

cliff-brake; cliff brake; rock brake (any of several small lithophytic ferns of tropical and warm temperate regions)

Doryopteris pedata; hand fern (tropical American fern with coarsely lobed to palmatifid fronds)

rock brake (dwarf deciduous lithophytic ferns)

bamboo fern; Coniogramme japonica (fast-growing sturdy Japanese fern; cultivated for their attractive broad dark-green pinnate fronds)

Cheilanthes gracillima; lace fern (small tufted fern of northwestern America)

adder's tongue; adder's tongue fern (ferns with fertile spikes shaped like a snake's tongue)

pecopteris (Carboniferous fossil fern characterized by a regular arrangement of the leaflets resembling a comb)

lecanopteris (any of several bizarre ferns of the genus Lecanopteris having swollen hollow rhizomes that provide homes for symbiotic ants)

basket fern; Drynaria rigidula (giant epiphytic or lithophytic fern; Asia to Polynesia and Australia)

strap fern (fern with long narrow strap-shaped leaves)

Aglaomorpha meyeniana; bear's-paw fern (epiphytic fern with large fronds; Taiwan and Philippines)

polypody (any of numerous ferns of the genus Polypodium)

fan fern; Gleichenia flabellata; Sticherus flabellatus; umbrella fern (large Australasian fern with fanlike repeatedly forked fronds; sometimes placed in genus Gleichenia)

Diplopterygium longissimum; giant scrambling fern (large scrambling fern forming large patches to 18 feet high; Pacific region and China)

flowering fern; Helminthostachys zeylanica (Australasian fern with clusters of sporangia on stems of fertile fronds)

grape fern (a fern of the genus Botrychium having a fertile frond bearing small grapelike clusters of spore cases)

Microgramma-piloselloides; snake polypody (epiphytic ferns with long rhizomes; tropical America)

aquatic fern; water fern (ferns that grow in water)

Mohria caffrorum; scented fern (sweetly scented African fern with narrow bipinnate fronds)

climbing fern (any of several ferns of the genus Lygodium that climb by twining)

Anemia adiantifolia; pine fern (fern of Florida and West Indies and Central America with rhizome densely clad in grown hairs)

curly grass; curly grass fern; Schizaea pusilla (rare small fern of northeastern North America having numerous slender spiraling fronds and forming dense tufts)

crepe fern; king fern; Todea barbara (fern of rain forests of tropical Australia and New Zealand and South Africa)

crape fern; Leptopteris superba; Prince-of-Wales feather; Prince-of-Wales fern; Prince-of-Wales plume; Todea superba (New Zealand with pinnate fronds and a densely woolly stalks; sometimes included in genus Todea)

flowering fern; osmund (any fern of the genus Osmunda: large ferns with creeping rhizomes; naked sporangia are on modified fronds that resemble flower clusters)

bristle fern; filmy fern (any fern of the genus Trichomanes having large pinnatifid often translucent fronds; most are epiphytic on tree branches and twigs or terrestrial on mossy banks)

film fern; filmy fern (any fern of the genus Hymenophyllum growing in tropical humid regions and having translucent leaves)

Asplenium nigripes; Schaffneria nigripes; Scolopendrium nigripes (a fern of the genus Schaffneria)

Culcita dubia; false bracken (resembles Pteridium aquilinum; of Queensland, Australia)

bracken; Pteridium esculentum (fern of southeastern Asia; not hardy in cold temperate regions)

bracken; brake; pasture brake; Pteridium aquilinum (large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan)

boulder fern; Dennstaedtia punctilobula; hay-scented; hay-scented fern; scented fern (fern of eastern North America with pale green fronds and an aroma like hay)

davallia (any fern of the genus Davallia; having scaly creeping rhizomes)

tree fern (any of numerous usually tropical ferns having a thick woody stem or caudex and a crown of large fronds; found especially in Australia and New Zealand; chiefly of the families Cyatheaceae and Marattiaceae but some from Polypodiaceae)

chain fern (a fern of the genus Woodwardia having the sori in chainlike rows)

doodia; rasp fern (any fern of the genus Doodia having pinnate fronds with sharply dentate pinnae)

hard fern (any of several ferns of the genus Blechnum)

scolopendrium (a fern thought to resemble a millipede)

climbing bird's nest fern; Microsorium punctatum (tropical Africa to Australasia and Polynesia)

Asplenium ceterach; Ceterach officinarum; scale fern; scaly fern (small European fern with chaffy leathery fronds)

Asplenium scolopendrium; hart's-tongue; hart's-tongue fern; Phyllitis scolopendrium (Eurasian fern with simple lanceolate fronds)

Asplenium nidus; bird's nest fern (tropical Old World or Australian epiphytic fern frequently forming tufts in tree crotches)

spleenwort (any of various chiefly rock-inhabiting ferns of the genus Asplenium)

grass fern; ribbon fern; Vittaria lineata (epiphytic fern found in lowland forests of tropical America)

potato fern; Solanopteris bifrons (small epiphytic fern of South America with tuberous swellings along rhizomes)

Cyclophorus lingua; felt fern; Pyrrosia lingua; tongue fern (east Asian fern having fronds shaped like tongues; sometimes placed in genus Cyclophorus)

staghorn fern (any of various tropical ferns of the genus Platycerium having large flat lobed fronds often resembling the antlers of a stag)

golden polypody; Phlebodium aureum; Polypodium aureum; rabbit's-foot fern; serpent fern (tropical American fern with brown scaly rhizomes cultivated for its large deeply lobed deep bluish-green fronds; sometimes placed in genus Polypodium)

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

class Filicinae; class Filicopsida; Filicinae; Filicopsida (ferns)

Derivation:

ferny (abounding in or covered with ferns)

ferny (resembling ferns especially in leaf shape)

 Context examples 

High reeds of a peculiar type grew thickly before us, which were pronounced to be equisetacea, or mare's-tails, with tree-ferns scattered amongst them, all of them swaying in a brisk wind.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a large, airy place, with a little spring and a pool of clear water, overhung with ferns.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Here and there a tawny brook prattled out from among the underwood and lost itself again in the ferns and brambles upon the further side.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Amy was sketching a group of ferns, and Jo was knitting as she read aloud.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Then he clambered up to the rim of the hollow, and crawled about among the ferns and bushes.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These organisms were some of the first complex organisms on Earth, and although they look like ferns, they may have been some of the first animals to exist – although it’s difficult for scientists to be entirely sure.

(Why life on Earth first got big, University of Cambridge)

A few palms still survive, and many tree-ferns, but the Amazonian trees have been all left behind.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A few yards from the end the soil was all ploughed up into a patch of mud, and the branches and ferns which fringed the chasm were torn and bedraggled.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Before she could speak, Annie had the cover off, and all were exclaiming at the lovely roses, heath, and fern within.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Most of the soil had been washed away or buried in drift after the removal of the trees; only where the streamlet ran down from the kettle a thick bed of moss and some ferns and little creeping bushes were still green among the sand.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)