MILKWEED

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does milkweed mean? 

• MILKWEED (noun)
  The noun MILKWEED has 2 senses:

1. any of numerous plants of the genus Asclepias having milky juice and pods that split open releasing seeds with downy tufts

2. annual Eurasian sow thistle with soft spiny leaves and rayed yellow flower heads

  Familiarity information: MILKWEED used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MILKWEED (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous plants of the genus Asclepias having milky juice and pods that split open releasing seeds with downy tufts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

milkweed; silkweed

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

herb; herbaceous plant (a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests)

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

Asclepias albicans; white milkweed (tall herb with leafless white waxy stems and whitish starlike flowers; southwestern United States)

Asclepias curassavica; blood flower; swallowwort (tropical herb having orange-red flowers followed by pods suggesting a swallow with outspread wings; a weed throughout the tropics)

Asclepias exaltata; poke milkweed (milkweed of the eastern United States with leaves resembling those of pokeweed)

Asclepias incarnata; swamp milkweed (densely branching perennial of the eastern United States with white to crimson or purple flowers)

Asclepia meadii; Asclepias meadii; Mead's milkweed (milkweed of central North America; a threatened species)

Asclepias purpurascens; purple silkweed (perennial of eastern North America having pink-purple flowers)

Asclepias speciosa; showy milkweed (milkweed of southern North America having large starry purple and pink flowers)

Asclepias subverticillata; horsetail milkweed; poison milkweed (milkweed of southwestern United States and Mexico; poisonous to livestock)

Asclepias tuberosa; butterfly weed; chigger flower; chiggerflower; Indian paintbrush; orange milkweed; pleurisy root; tuber root (erect perennial of eastern and southern United States having showy orange flowers)

Asclepias verticillata; whorled milkweed (milkweed of the eastern United States with narrow leaves in whorls and greenish-white flowers)

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

Asclepias; genus Asclepias (genus of chiefly North American perennial herbs: silkweed; milkweed)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Annual Eurasian sow thistle with soft spiny leaves and rayed yellow flower heads

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

milkweed; Sonchus oleraceus

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

milk thistle; sow thistle (any of several Old World coarse prickly-leaved shrubs and subshrubs having milky juice and yellow flowers; widely naturalized; often noxious weeds in cultivated soil)