Word.ws English Dictionary

duckweed

/ˈdʌkˌwid/

duckweed noun: any of several reduced floating aquatic plants in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the family Araceae.

duckweed: any of several reduced floating aquatic plants in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the family Araceae
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

duckweed (countable and uncountable, plural duckweeds or duckweed)

  1. Any of several reduced floating aquatic plants in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the family Araceae.
    • He that vvould diſcern the rudimentall ſtroak of a plant, may behold it in the Originall of Duckvveed, at the bigneſſe of a pins point, from convenient vvater in glaſſes, vvherein a vvatchfull eye may alſo diſcover the puncticular Originals of Perivvincles and Gnats.1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 137
    • But his face was a face of such happiness that, had you seen it, you would have understood indeed how that he had died happy, never knowing that cool and streaming silver for the duckweed in the pond.1909, H. G. Wells, The Beautiful Suit
    Synonyms:
    duckmeat, ducksmeat

duckweed meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Assamese and Malay

duckweed in Tamil

பாசி, சைவலம்

duckweed in Kannada

ಪಾಚಿ

duckweed in Assamese

plant
পুণী puni

duckweed in Malay

plant
kiambang
More languagesFewer languages
duckweed in Thai
แหน nɛ̌ɛ
duckweed in Vietnamese
bèo

Synonyms of duckweed

Forms of duckweed

pluralduckweeds
pluralduckweed

Origin of duckweed

From duck + weed. Supposedly so-named for often being consumed by ducks and other waterfowl. Compare Middle English dokemete (“duckweed”, literally “duck-food”).

Words formed from duckweed

Phrases with duckweed

Questions about duckweed

What does duckweed mean?
Duckweed means any of several reduced floating aquatic plants in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the family Araceae.
What is duckweed in Tamil?
Duckweed in Tamil is பாசி, சைவலம். See Duckweed meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is duckweed?
Duckweed is a noun.
How do you pronounce duckweed?
Duckweed is pronounced /ˈdʌkˌwid/ (US).
What is the plural of duckweed?
The plural of duckweed is duckweeds.

Words near duckweed in the dictionary

  1. duckunoos
  2. duckwalk
  3. duckwalked
  4. duckwalking
  5. duckwalks
  6. duckweed
  7. duckweed fern
  8. duckweed ferns
  9. duckweeds
  10. duckwing
  11. duckwings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duckweed (page history and authors); duckweed (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); duckweed (Kannada Wiktionary) (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)-Wodencafe-duckweed.wav.

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