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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 many plants, of the family Polygonaceae, embracing a large number of species, including bistort, knotweed, smartweed, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: biology, botany, natural-sciences
Synonyms: polygony
Antonyms: none provided
noun
diverse genus of herbs or woody subshrubs of north temperate regions
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: genus Polygonum
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: dicot genus, magnoliopsid genus
History
From translingual Polygonum, from Ancient Greek πολύγονον (polúgonon, “knotweed”), from πολύς (polús, “many”) + γόνυ (gónu, “knee”), so called in allusion to the numerous joints, or neuter of πολύγονος (polúgonos, “prolific”), from πολύς (polús, “many”) + γόνος (gónos, “offspring”). If the former of those two hypotheses is true, then the word would be related to polygon (from γωνία (gōnía, “corner, angle”), a derivative of γόνυ (gónu)).
Across languages
8 source translations are retained for this English entry.
