WORMWOOD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wormwood mean? 

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

1. any of several low composite herbs of the genera Artemisia or Seriphidium

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• WORMWOOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several low composite herbs of the genera Artemisia or Seriphidium

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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

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

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

mugwort (any of several weedy composite plants of the genus Artemisia)

Artemisia abrotanum; southernwood (shrubby European wormwood naturalized in North America; sometimes used in brewing beer)

absinthe; Artemisia absinthium; common wormwood; lad's love; old man (aromatic herb of temperate Eurasia and North Africa having a bitter taste used in making the liqueur absinthe)

Artemisia annua; sweet wormwood (wormwood of southeastern Europe to Iran)

Artemisia campestris; field wormwood (European wormwood similar to common wormwood in its properties)

Artemisia frigida; prairie sagewort; wormwood sage (silky-leaved aromatic perennial of dry northern parts of the northern hemisphere; has tawny florets)

Artemis pontica; Roman wormwood (European wormwood; minor source of absinthe)

Artemisia stelleriana; beach wormwood; dusty miller; old woman (herb with greyish leaves found along the east coast of North America; used as an ornamental plant)

Artemisia maritima; sea wormwood; Seriphidium maritimum (plants of western and northern European coasts)

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

aster family; Asteraceae; Compositae; family Asteraceae; family Compositae (plants with heads composed of many florets: aster; daisy; dandelion; goldenrod; marigold; lettuces; ragweed; sunflower; thistle; zinnia)

 Context examples 

An herbal remedy containing the leaves and/or flowering tops of a species of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) with potential anticachexia activity.

(Artemisia absinthium, NCI Thesaurus)

Researchers added that other plants have been shown to offer the same kind of promise, including parsley, Artemesia annua (sweet wormwood), and peanut hairy roots.

(Human Heart Cells Grown on Spinach Leaves, VOA News)

Exhausted by emotion, my language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed that sad theme; and mindful of Helen's warnings against the indulgence of resentment, I infused into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)