SORREL

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

IPA (US):

Dictionary entry overview: What does sorrel mean?

• SORREL (noun)
The noun SORREL has 5 senses:

1. any plant or flower of the genus Oxalis

2. any of certain coarse weedy plants with long taproots, sometimes used as table greens or in folk medicine

3. East Indian sparsely prickly annual herb or perennial subshrub widely cultivated for its fleshy calyxes used in tarts and jelly and for its bast fiber

4. large sour-tasting arrowhead-shaped leaves used in salads and sauces

5. a horse of a brownish orange to light brown color

Familiarity information: SORREL used as a noun is common.

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

1. of a light brownish color

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

Dictionary entry details

• SORREL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any plant or flower of the genus Oxalis

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

oxalis; sorrel; wood sorrel

Hypernyms ("sorrel" 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 "sorrel"):

common wood sorrel; cuckoo bread; Oxalis acetosella; shamrock (Eurasian plant with heart-shaped trifoliate leaves and white purple-veined flowers)

Bermuda buttercup; English-weed; Oxalis cernua; Oxalis pes-caprae (South African bulbous wood sorrel with showy yellow flowers)

creeping oxalis; creeping wood sorrel; Oxalis corniculata (creeping much-branched mat-forming weed; cosmopolitan)

goat's foot; goatsfoot; Oxalis caprina (short-stemmed South African plant with bluish flowers)

Oxalis violacea; violet wood sorrel (perennial herb of eastern North America with palmately compound leaves and usually rose-purple flowers)

oca; oka; Oxalis crenata; Oxalis tuberosa (South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers)

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

genus Oxalis (type genus of the Oxalidaceae; large genus of plants having leaves that resemble clover and variously colored flowers usually clustered in umbels)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of certain coarse weedy plants with long taproots, sometimes used as table greens or in folk medicine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

dock; sorrel; sour grass

Hypernyms ("sorrel" 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 "sorrel"):

garden sorrel; Rumex acetosa; sour dock (European sorrel with large slightly acidic sagittate leaves grown throughout north temperate zone for salad and spring greens)

Rumex acetosella; sheep's sorrel; sheep sorrel (small plant having pleasantly acid-tasting arrow-shaped leaves; common in dry places)

bitter dock; broad-leaved dock; Rumex obtusifolius; yellow dock (European dock with broad obtuse leaves and bitter rootstock common as a weed in North America)

French sorrel; garden sorrel; Rumex scutatus (low perennial with small silvery-green ovate to hastate leaves)

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

genus Rumex; Rumex (docks: coarse herbs and shrubs mainly native to north temperate regions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

East Indian sparsely prickly annual herb or perennial subshrub widely cultivated for its fleshy calyxes used in tarts and jelly and for its bast fiber

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Hibiscus sabdariffa; Jamaica sorrel; red sorrel; roselle; rozelle; sorrel

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

hibiscus (any plant of the genus Hibiscus)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Large sour-tasting arrowhead-shaped leaves used in salads and sauces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

common sorrel; sorrel

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

green; greens; leafy vegetable (any of various leafy plants or their leaves and stems eaten as vegetables)

Holonyms ("sorrel" is a part of...):

garden sorrel; Rumex acetosa; sour dock (European sorrel with large slightly acidic sagittate leaves grown throughout north temperate zone for salad and spring greens)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A horse of a brownish orange to light brown color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

Equus caballus; horse (solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times)

• SORREL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of a light brownish color

Synonyms:

brownish-orange; sorrel

Similar:

chromatic (being or having or characterized by hue)

Context examples

Also called sheep sorrel and sorrel.

(Dock, NCI Dictionary)

The master horse ordered a sorrel nag, one of his servants, to untie the largest of these animals, and take him into the yard.