Word.ws English Dictionary

centaurea

centaurea noun: any of the plants in the genus Centaurea.

Noun

centaurea (plural centaureas)

  1. Any of the plants in the genus Centaurea.
    • The marjorum stood in ruddy and fragrant masses; harebells and campanulas of several kinds, that are cultivated in our gardens, with bells large and clear; crimson pinks; the Michaelmas daisy; a plant with a thin, radiated yellow flower, of the character of an aster; a centaurea of a light purple...1850, Harper's Magazine, volume 1, page 449
    • Its border is of tri-colored and quadricolored geranium leaves, intermingled with leaves of the highly tinted coleus and the hoary centaurea.1873, Michigan State Pomological Society, Annual Report of the Michigan State Pomological Society, volume 2, page 131

Examples of centaurea in a sentence

  • Two of the best-known annual centaureas are C. cyanus (cornflower or Bachelor’s button) and C. moschata (Sweet Sultan).1953, The Visual Garden Manual, page 48:
  • However, in actual fact, none of the centaureas, like the majority of the family Compositae in general, possess any great medicinal properties.1975, Ippolito Pizzetti, Henry Cocker, Flowers: a Guide for Your Garden, volume 1, page 205:
  • Another type of centaurea, which has an interesting flower with sharp pointed tips, is Centaurea moschata.2000, Shane Smith, Greenhouse Gardener's Companion: Growing Food and Flowers in Your Greenhouse Or Sunspace, →ISBN, page 194:

Forms of centaurea

pluralcentaureas

Origin of centaurea

From the genus name, Centaurea, from Latin centaurēa. Doublet of centaury.

Questions about centaurea

What does centaurea mean?
Centaurea means any of the plants in the genus Centaurea.
How do you use centaurea in a sentence?
Two of the best-known annual centaureas are C. cyanus (cornflower or Bachelor’s button) and C. moschata (Sweet Sultan).
What part of speech is centaurea?
Centaurea is a noun.
What is the plural of centaurea?
The plural of centaurea is centaureas.

Words near centaurea in the dictionary

  1. centaur
  2. Centauran
  3. Centaurans
  4. centaurdom
  5. centaure
  6. centaurea
  7. centaureas
  8. centaures
  9. centauresque
  10. centauress
  11. centauresses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: centaurea (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.

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