LILAC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lilac mean? 

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

1. any of various plants of the genus Syringa having large panicles of usually fragrant flowers

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

• LILAC (adjective)
  The adjective LILAC has 1 sense:

1. of a pale purple color

  Familiarity information: LILAC used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LILAC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various plants of the genus Syringa having large panicles of usually fragrant flowers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

bush; shrub (a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems)

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

Himalayan lilac; Syringa emodi (robust upright shrub of mountains of northern India having oblong-elliptic leaves and pale lilac or white malodorous flowers)

Hungarian lilac; Syringa josikaea; Syringa josikea (central European upright shrub having elliptic leaves and upright clusters of lilac or deep violet flowers)

Persian lilac; Syringa persica (small densely branching Asiatic shrub having lanceolate leaves and panicles of fragrant lilac flowers)

Japanese tree lilac; Syringa amurensis japonica; Syringa reticulata (small tree of Japan having narrow pointed leaves and creamy-white flowers)

Japanese lilac; Syringa villosa (lilac of northern China having ovate leaves and profuse early summer rose-lilac flowers)

common lilac; Syringa vulgaris (large European lilac naturalized in North America having heart-shaped ovate leaves and large panicles of highly fragrant lilac or white flowers)

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

genus Syringa; Syringa (genus of Old World shrubs or low trees having fragrant flowers in showy panicles: lilacs)

Derivation:

lilac (of a pale purple color)

• LILAC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of a pale purple color

Synonyms:

lavender; lilac; lilac-colored

Similar:

chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)

Derivation:

lilac (any of various plants of the genus Syringa having large panicles of usually fragrant flowers)

 Context examples 

I'll be married in this lilac gingham: you may make a dressing-gown for yourself out of the pearl-grey silk, and an infinite series of waistcoats out of the black satin.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She had embroidered a white Welcome upon a blue ground, with an anchor in red upon each side, and a border of laurel leaves; and this was to hang upon the two lilac bushes which flanked the cottage door.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But oh! when I DID find the house, and DID dismount at the garden-gate, and drag those stony-hearted boots across the lawn to Dora sitting on a garden-seat under a lilac tree, what a spectacle she was, upon that beautiful morning, among the butterflies, in a white chip bonnet and a dress of celestial blue!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Under the dripping bare lilac trees a large open car was coming up the drive. It stopped. Daisy's face, tipped sideways beneath a three-cornered lavender hat, looked out at me with a bright ecstatic smile.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)