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NIGHTSHADE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does nightshade mean?
• NIGHTSHADE (noun)
The noun NIGHTSHADE has 1 sense:
1. any of numerous shrubs or herbs or vines of the genus Solanum; most are poisonous though many bear edible fruit
Familiarity information: NIGHTSHADE used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Any of numerous shrubs or herbs or vines of the genus Solanum; most are poisonous though many bear edible fruit
Classified under:
Nouns denoting plants
Hypernyms ("nightshade" is a kind of...):
ligneous plant; woody plant (a plant having hard lignified tissues or woody parts especially stems)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nightshade"):
kangaroo apple; poroporo; Solanum aviculare (Australian annual sometimes cultivated for its racemes of purple flowers and edible yellow egg-shaped fruit)
ball nettle; ball nightshade; bull nettle; horse nettle; Solanum carolinense (coarse prickly weed having pale yellow flowers and yellow berrylike fruit; common throughout southern and eastern United States)
bittersweet; bittersweet nightshade; climbing nightshade; deadly nightshade; poisonous nightshade; Solanum dulcamara; woody nightshade (poisonous perennial Old World vine having violet flowers and oval coral-red berries; widespread weed in North America)
prairie berry; purple nightshade; silver-leaved nettle; silver-leaved nightshade; silverleaf nightshade; Solanum elaeagnifolium; trompillo; white horse nettle (weedy nightshade with silvery foliage and violet or blue or white flowers; roundish berry widely used to curdle milk; central United States to South America)
African holly; Solanum giganteum (woolly-stemmed biennial arborescent shrub of tropical Africa and southern Asia having silvery-white prickly branches, clusters of blue or white flowers, and bright red berries resembling holly berries)
black nightshade; common nightshade; poison-berry; poisonberry; Solanum nigrum (Eurasian herb naturalized in America having white flowers and poisonous hairy foliage and bearing black berries that are sometimes poisonous but sometimes edible)
Jerusalem cherry; Madeira winter cherry; Solanum pseudocapsicum; winter cherry (small South American shrub cultivated as a houseplant for its abundant ornamental but poisonous red or yellow cherry-sized fruit)
buffalo bur; Solanum rostratum (North American nightshade with prickly foliage and racemose yellow flowers)
Holonyms ("nightshade" is a member of...):
genus Solanum; Solanum (type genus of the Solanaceae: nightshade; potato; eggplant; bittersweet)
Context examples
Cultivated in India and North America, ashwagandha (Withania somnifera Dunal or Indian ginseng) belongs to the Solanaceae (nightshade) family.
(Ashwagandha Root Powder Extract, NCI Thesaurus)
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