crocus
/ˈkɹəʊ.kəs//ˈkɹoʊ.kəs/
crocus noun: a perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
Noun (1)
crocus (plural crocuses or croci or crocus or crocusses)
- A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
- Other foreign terms have become so thoroughly Anglicised as to adopt English plurals, and it is sometimes difficult to decide whether the English or the original foreign form is the more correct. None but a pedant would speak of ‘the chori of an opera,’ ‘the croci in a garden,’ or ‘the dogmata of...[a. 1881, William B[allantyne] Hodgson, “Noun”, in Errors in the Use of English, Edinburgh: David Douglas, published 1881, part II (Accidence), page 70
- Nothing is more short-lived than the erection; like the crocus of spring, it is there for a moment, and then it is gone; one moment the penis is small, soft, and insignificant, and then in the next it is hard, rigid, and three and four times its previous size.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 128
- Any of various similar flowering plants, such as autumn crocus and prairie crocus.
- A deep yellow powder, the oxide of some metal (especially iron), calcined to a red or deep yellow colour.
Noun (2)
crocus (plural crocuses)
- A fraudulent doctor; a quack.
- The characteristics of the crocus or vagabond quack doctor appear to find a sardonically appropriate origin in the Erse cruach-bhas, a bloody death.1887, Charles James Ribton-Turner, A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy, and Beggars and Begging, page 479
- The crocus of this novel is gusty Professor Louis Delfontaine, quack doctor, showman, charlatan and man of parts.1937, Neil Bell, Crocus
Noun (3)
crocus (uncountable)
- Burlap.
- a crocus bag
crocus meaning in Persian
crocus in Persian
- plant of genus Crocus
- کروکوس krokus
Examples of crocus in a sentence
- The crocuses should be sprouting after 2 months, provided they're well tended.
- The saffron crocus has to be planted by hand from corms.
- Those crocus-y flowers gracing area yards now are called autumn crocus but belong to the genus Colchicum.
Forms of crocus
| plural | crocuses |
|---|---|
| plural | croci |
| plural | crocus |
| plural | crocusses |
Origin of crocus
Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”), from an ancient Semitic language.
Perhaps related to croak.
Words formed from crocus
Words that rhyme with crocus
Questions about crocus
- What does crocus mean?
- Crocus means a perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
- What is crocus in Persian?
- Crocus in Persian is کروکوس (krokus). See Crocus meaning in Persian.
- What part of speech is crocus?
- Crocus is a noun.
- How do you pronounce crocus?
- Crocus is pronounced /ˈkɹəʊ.kəs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of crocus?
- The plural of crocus is crocuses.
Words near crocus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: crocus (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crocus.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-crocus.wav.
Cite this entry: “crocus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crocus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.