catalpa

/kəˈtælpə/US/kəˈtælpə/

catalpa noun: any tree of the genus Catalpa, in the family Bignoniaceae. The two North American species, the southern catalpa, Catalpa bignonioides, and the northern catalpa, Catalpa speciosa — along with the yellow catalpa, Catalpa ovata, from China — are often planted as ornamentals because of their showy flowers and decorative bean pods, though others regard the bean pods as a nuisance.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

catalpa (plural catalpas)

Any tree of the genus Catalpa, in the family Bignoniaceae. The two North American species, the southern catalpa, Catalpa bignonioides, and the northern catalpa, Catalpa speciosa — along with the yellow catalpa, Catalpa ovata, from China — are often planted as ornamentals because of their showy flowers and decorative bean pods, though others regard the bean pods as a nuisance.

Forms of catalpa

plural	catalpas

Origin of catalpa

* A variant of catawba that originated when Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, the describing botanist, incorrectly transcribed the name. * Sometimes alternatively said to derive from Creek kvtvrpv.

Words formed from catalpa

catalpic
Chinese catalpa
Haitian catalpa
hardy catalpa
Manchurian catalpa
northern catalpa
southern catalpa
umbrella catalpa
western catalpa
yellow catalpa

Words that rhyme with catalpa

Questions about catalpa

What does catalpa mean?: Catalpa means any tree of the genus Catalpa, in the family Bignoniaceae. The two North American species, the southern catalpa, Catalpa bignonioides, and the northern catalpa, Catalpa speciosa — along with the yellow catalpa, Catalpa ovata, from China — are often planted as ornamentals because of their showy flowers and decorative bean pods, though others regard the bean pods as a nuisance.
What part of speech is catalpa?: Catalpa is a noun.
How do you pronounce catalpa?: Catalpa is pronounced /kəˈtælpə/ (UK).
What is the plural of catalpa?: The plural of catalpa is catalpas.

Words near catalpa in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: catalpa (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-catalpa.wav.

Cite this entry: “catalpa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catalpa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.