gentian

/ˈd͡ʒɛnt͡ʃn̩/US/ˈd͡ʒɛnt͡ʃən/

gentian noun: any of various herbs of the family Gentianaceae found in temperate and mountainous regions with violet or blue flowers.

Image: Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

gentian (countable and uncountable, plural gentians)

(countable) Any of various herbs of the family Gentianaceae found in temperate and mountainous regions with violet or blue flowers.
- On the cover of the leaflet advertising the Alpenrose Gasthof in Zirl am Gurgl […] there is a decorative picture of a young woman. […] She has bright flaxen hair and laughing eyes of the same hue as the gentians in the meadow beyond the inn.1956, Delano Ames, Crime out of Mind, chapter 1
- Searching again, he noticed something that had eluded him before: a single flower, a gentian, blooming not fifty feet in front of them, where, by all rights, there ought to be solid rock. How does it get enough light to live?2008, Christopher Paolini, “Assault on Helgrind”, in Brisingr, page 39
(uncountable) Dried roots and rhizome of European gentian (Gentiana lutea), used as a tonic.

gentian meaning in Arabic and Persian

gentian in Arabic

Any of various herbs of the family Gentianaceae: جَنْطِيَانَا janṭiyānā, كُوشَاد kūšād
The dried roots and rhizome of a European gentian: جَنْطِيَانَا janṭiyānā, كُوشَاد kūšād

gentian in Persian

Any of various herbs of the family Gentianaceae: کوشاد kušâd, جنطیانا jantiyânâ
The dried roots and rhizome of a European gentian: کوشاد kušâd, جنطیانا jantiyânâ

Synonyms of gentian

fieldwort

Forms of gentian

plural	gentians

Origin of gentian

Via Middle English from Latin gentiāna, which, according to Pliny the Elder, was named after Gentius (Ancient Greek Γένθιος (Génthios)), the last king of Illyria, who supposedly discovered the plant's medicinal benefits. This has been dismissed as folk etymology but the word may still ultimately be of Illyrian origin, as -an is a common suffix in Illyrian words.

Words formed from gentian

Alpine gentian
American gentian
Appalachian gentian
autumn gentian
bastard gentian
Bavarian gentian
bigleaf gentian
bladder gentian
blind gentian
blue gentian
bog gentian
Bohemian gentian
bottle gentian
bristly gentian
broadpetal gentian
brown gentian
Caucasian gentian
Charleston gentian
Chiltern gentian
closed gentian
clustered gentian
crested gentian
cross gentian
downy gentian
dune gentian
dwarf gentian
early gentian
Elliott's gentian
European gentian
explorer's gentian
field gentian
five-flowered gentian
fringed gentian
gentamicin
gentian blue
gentianic
gentianine
gentianose
gentian violet
German gentian
giant gentian
greater fringed gentian
great yellow gentian
green gentian
harvestbells gentian
horse gentian
Karawanken gentian
king's scepter gentian
marsh gentian
Mendocino gentian
moss gentian
mountain bog gentian
narrowleaf gentian
Newberry's gentian
New England gentian
pale gentian
Parry's gentian
pinebarren gentian
plain gentian
pleated gentian

Phrases with gentian

Words that rhyme with gentian

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

reprehension

Questions about gentian

What does gentian mean?: Gentian means any of various herbs of the family Gentianaceae found in temperate and mountainous regions with violet or blue flowers.
What is gentian in Arabic?: Gentian in Arabic is جَنْطِيَانَا (janṭiyānā), كُوشَاد (kūšād). See Gentian meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is gentian?: Gentian is a noun.
How do you pronounce gentian?: Gentian is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɛnt͡ʃən/ (US).
What is the plural of gentian?: The plural of gentian is gentians.

Words near gentian in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gentian (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-gentian.wav.

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