Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
Any of a few hundred species of European and Asian plants, of the genus Verbascum, especially that majority that have yellow flowers.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Aaron's rod, cow's lungwort, feltwort, flannel leaf, velvet plant
Antonyms: none provided
noun
any of various plants of the genus Verbascum having large usually woolly leaves and terminal spikes of yellow or white or purplish flowers
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: flannel leaf, velvet plant
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: herb, herbaceous plant
Narrower terms: moth mullein, Verbascum blattaria, white mullein, Verbascum lychnitis, purple mullein, Verbascum phoeniceum, common mullein, great mullein, Aaron's rod, flannel mullein, woolly mullein, torch, Verbascum thapsus
History
From Middle English moleyne, from Anglo-Norman moleine, which is either a Celtic borrowing and derived from Proto-Celtic *melinos (“yellow”) from *meli (“honey”) – an adjective found in Breton melen (“yellow”) and Welsh melyn (“yellow”) – or from mol (“soft”), from Latin mollis (“soft”), referencing the plant's fluffy, downy leaves, also apparent in synonyms such as feltwort, flannel leaf, and velvet plant.
Across languages
56 source translations are retained for this English entry.
