ST JOHN'S WORT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does St John's wort mean? 

• ST JOHN'S WORT (noun)
  The noun ST JOHN'S WORT has 1 sense:

1. any of numerous plants of the genus Hypericum having yellow flowers and transparently dotted leaves; traditionally gathered on St John's eve to ward off evil

  Familiarity information: ST JOHN'S WORT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ST JOHN'S WORT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous plants of the genus Hypericum having yellow flowers and transparently dotted leaves; traditionally gathered on St John's eve to ward off evil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("St John's wort" is a kind of...):

subshrub; suffrutex (low-growing woody shrub or perennial with woody base)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "St John's wort"):

common St John's wort; Hypericum androsaemum; tutsan (deciduous bushy Eurasian shrub with golden yellow flowers and reddish-purple fruits from which a soothing salve is made in Spain)

great St John's wort; Hypericum ascyron; Hypericum pyramidatum (perennial shrub having large star-shaped yellow flowers in narrowly pyramidal cymes)

creeping St John's wort; Hypericum calycinum (creeping evergreen shrub with bright yellow star-shaped summer flowers; useful as ground cover)

Hypericum gentianoides; nitweed; orange grass; pine-weed; pineweed (annual wiry-stemmed North American weed with minute scalelike leaves and small yellow flowers)

Hypericum crux andrae; St Andrews's cross (shrubby plant having yellow to apricot flowers with four petals arranged in a cross; southeastern United States: New York to Texas)

Hypericum hypericoides; low St Andrew's cross (low shrubby plant having yellow flowers with four petals arranged in a cross; Bermuda and southeastern United States to West Indies and eastern Mexico)

Hypericum perforatum; klammath weed (yellow-flowered perennial common in fields and waste places but a weed in rangelands)

Hypericum prolificum; Hypericum spathulatum; shrubby St John's wort (stiff shrub having oblong entire leaves and dense cymes of yellow flowers)

Hypericum maculatum; Hypericum tetrapterum; St Peter's wort (European perennial St John's wort; Ireland and France to western Siberia)

Hypericum virginianum; marsh St-John's wort (perennial marsh herb with pink to mauve flowers; southeastern United States)

Holonyms ("St John's wort" is a member of...):

genus Hypericum; Hypericum (large almost cosmopolitan genus of evergreen or deciduous shrubs and herbs with often showy yellow flowers; cosmopolitan except tropical lowlands and Arctic or high altitudes and desert regions)