SEDGE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sedge mean? 

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

1. grasslike or rushlike plant growing in wet places having solid stems, narrow grasslike leaves and spikelets of inconspicuous flowers

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEDGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grasslike or rushlike plant growing in wet places having solid stems, narrow grasslike leaves and spikelets of inconspicuous flowers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

bog plant; marsh plant; swamp plant (a semiaquatic plant that grows in soft wet land; most are monocots: sedge, sphagnum, grasses, cattails, etc; possibly heath)

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

Cyperus alternifolius; umbrella plant; umbrella sedge (African sedge widely cultivated as an ornamental water plant for its terminal umbrellalike cluster of slender grasslike leaves)

chufa; Cyperus esculentus; earth almond; ground almond; rush nut; yellow nutgrass (European sedge having small edible nutlike tubers)

Cyperus longus; galangal; galingale (European sedge having rough-edged leaves and spikelets of reddish flowers and aromatic roots)

Cyperus papyrus; Egyptian paper reed; Egyptian paper rush; paper plant; paper rush; papyrus (tall sedge of the Nile valley yielding fiber that served many purposes in historic times)

Cyperus rotundus; nut grass; nut sedge; nutgrass; nutsedge (a widely distributed perennial sedge having small edible nutlike tubers)

Carex arenaria; sand reed; sand sedge (European maritime sedge naturalized along Atlantic coast of United States; rootstock has properties of sarsaparilla)

Carex pseudocyperus; cypress sedge (tufted sedge of temperate regions; nearly cosmopolitan)

cotton grass; cotton rush (any sedge of the genus Eriophorum; north temperate bog plants with tufted spikes)

hardstem bulrush; hardstemmed bulrush; Scirpus acutus (widely distributed North American sedge having rigid olive green stems)

Scirpus cyperinus; wool grass (sedge of eastern North America having numerous clustered woolly spikelets)

spike rush (a sedge of the genus Eleocharis)

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

Cyperaceae; family Cyperaceae; sedge family (bulrush; chufa; cotton grass; papyrus; umbrella plant)

Derivation:

sedgy (covered with sedges (grasslike marsh plants))

 Context examples 

With three decades of data, the biologists realized that in chambers with high levels of carbon dioxide, the total biomass of the marsh sedges increased by 20%.

(High carbon dioxide can create 'shrinking stems' in marshes, National Science Foundation)

Now and again a peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Richer carbon dioxide was spurring the marsh sedges to grow more stems in thicker clusters.

(High carbon dioxide can create 'shrinking stems' in marshes, National Science Foundation)