cress
/kɹɛs/
cress noun: a plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic. Also the archaic form of kris.
Noun
cress (countable and uncountable, plural cresses)
- A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.
- Marcus Empiricus, a Roma physician, prescribed three scruples of cress, three of red onion, three of pine seed, three of Indian nard, for impotence.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 70
Proper noun capitalized: Cress
Cress
- A surname.
- Back in 2011, a 9-year-old named Milo Cress found it odd that the restaurants he would go to with his mom in Burlington, Vermont, would automatically serve drinks with a straw, whether or not their customer wanted one.2023 August 10, Harvin Bhathal, “Did plastic straw bans work? Yes, but not in the way you’d think.”, in Route Fifty
Also used as
cress is also the archaic form of kris.
cress meaning in Arabic, Persian, Thai and Vietnamese
cress in Arabic
- a plant
- حُرْف ḥurf, رَشَاد rašād
cress in Persian
- a plant
- شاهی šāhi, ترهتیزک taretizak, شبخیزک šabxizak, سپندان sepandān
cress in Thai
- a plant
- เทียนแดง tian-daeng
cress in Vietnamese
- a plant
- cải xoong
Forms of cress
| plural | cresses |
|---|
Origin of cress
From Middle English cresse, crasse, from Old English cressa, cærse (“cress”), from Proto-West Germanic *krassjō, from Proto-Germanic *krasjô (“cress”). Cognate with West Frisian kers (“cress”), Dutch kers (“cress”), German Kresse (“cress”), Danish karse (“cress”), Swedish krasse (“cress”), Icelandic krassi (“cress”).
Words formed from cress
- alpine rock cress
- Austrian cress
- bastard cress
- Belle Isle cress
- bittercress
- bitter-cress
- bog cress
- blister cress
- bulbous cress
- California cress
- cedar glade cress
- chamois cress
- cow cress
- cresslike
- cress rocket
- cressweed
- cresswort
- cressy
- curled cress
- dock cress
- fetid cress
- field cress
- fool's cress
- garden cress
- golden cress
- hairy bitter cress
- hoary cress
- Indian cress
- lake cress
- lamb's cress
- land cress
- marsh cress
- meadow cress
- monks cress
- monk's cress
- mouse-ear cress
- northern rock cress
- not worth a cress
- paracress
- pennycress
- peppercress
- Peter's cress
- river cress
- rockcress
- Boechera
- and Braya)
- rocketcress
- sand cress
- shepherd's cress
- Spanish cress
- spring cress
- St. Barbara's cress
- stone cress
- summer cress
- swine's cress
- thale cress
- Thanet cress
- tower cress
- town cress
- trophy cress
Phrases with cress
Words that rhyme with cress
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- SMS
- success
- compress
- largesse
- ness
- profess
- confess
- distress
- regress
- depress
- excess
- guess
- prepossess
- undress
- CBS
- ingress
- oppress
- redress
- transgress
- assess
- cess
- duress
- fess
- fluoresce
- Hesse
- less
- mayoress
- obsess
- tress
- unless
- yes
- accresce
- acquiesce
- aggress
- BESS
- caress
- clothes press
- congress
- defervesce
- digress
- ess
- foulness
- Hess
- intumesce
- jess
- lazy S
- liquesce
- repress
Questions about cress
- What does cress mean?
- Cress means a plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.
- What is cress in Arabic?
- Cress in Arabic is حُرْف (ḥurf), رَشَاد (rašād). See Cress meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is cress?
- Cress can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cress?
- Cress is pronounced /kɹɛs/.
- What is the plural of cress?
- The plural of cress is cresses.
Words near cress in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cress (page history and authors); Cress (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cress.wav.
Cite this entry: “cress.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cress. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.