Word.ws English Dictionary

greens

/ɡɹiːnz/

greens noun: leaves and leaf-like parts of edible plants when eaten as vegetables or in salads. Also the plural of green.

greens: leaves and leaf-like parts of edible plants when eaten as vegetables or in salads
Image: Victoria Grima, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

greens pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) Leaves and leaf-like parts of edible plants when eaten as vegetables or in salads.
    • salad greens
    • collard greens
  2. (plural, plural-only) Green vegetables; edible plants or plant parts that contain chlorophyll.
    • starches, meats, and greens
    • Greens are the most basic and prevalent life form on the planet. In the waters, the greens are represented in large and microscopic plant life such as phytoplankton, which grow abundantly in oceans around the world and are the foundation of the marine food chain. On land, the greens can be...2006, Ron Carter, Just Soul Food II-Greens/Holy Spirit's Love-Christ's Cross, →ISBN, page 102
  3. (plural, plural-only) Leafy plants that are used for decoration.
    • Yuletide greens
    • Tip greens - the new growth at the ends of branches - are often harvested either for the wholesale or retail market, or for one's own processing.1989, Lewis Hill, Christmas Trees: Growing and Selling Trees, Wreaths, and Greens, →ISBN
  4. (plural, plural-only) The green dress uniform of the United States Marine Corps.
    • Some years ago, moths ruined my greens, and my son, a career Army man, sensed my loss.1991, The Leatherneck, volume 74

Noun (2) capitalized: Greens

Greens

  1. (plural) plural of Green

Proper noun capitalized: Greens

Greens

  1. (plural) plural of Green
  2. (Australian) The Australian Greens, a left-wing, progressive green party in Australia
  3. (informal) Synonym of Green Party in various other contexts.
    Synonyms:
    Green Party in various other contexts
  4. (informal) Any of several sports teams whose uniform is predominantly green, particularly
    1. (historical, informal) The chariot-racing faction of the Roman circus and Constantinopolitan hippodrome that wore green.
      • 'Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues of ancient Rome,' wrote Edward Gibbon, 'and the same factions which had agitated the circus raged with redoubled fury in the Hippodrome.' Gibbon's judgment was that what produced the 'redoubled fury' in the Hippodrome was senseless...2002, James Allan Stewart Evans, The Age of Justinian..., p. 38

Also used as

greens is also the plural of green.

greens is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of green.

greens meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati and Vietnamese

greens in Tamil

leaves of certain edible green plants
கீரை kīrai
any vegetable eaten by humans, regardless of colour
கீரை kīrai

greens in Kannada

ಗ್ರೀನ್ಸ್, ಹಸಿರುಗಳು

greens in Gujarati

ગ્રીન્સ, લીલીઓ

greens in Vietnamese

leaves of certain edible green plants
rau

Examples of greens in a sentence

  • If you're a beginning gardener and have never grown a vegetable in your life before, try greens.2009, Charlie Nardozzi, Vegetable Gardening For Dummies, →ISBN, page 137:
  • Throughout the winter and spring, a variety of little greens shoot up that are the staples of a harvested salad.2017, Mia Wasilevich, Ugly Little Greens: Gourmet Dishes Crafted From Foraged Ingredients, →ISBN:
  • So, here's the deal: greens should be an essential part of every meal.2017, Jenn Louis, Kathleen Squires, The Book of Greens: A Cook's Compendium, →ISBN, page 2:
  • Another option is to wash spinach and other leafy greens thoroughly in running water before eating them.2021 July 1, Gregory McNamee, “Does spinach make you strong? Ask Popeye – and science”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2025:

Synonyms of greens

  • Green Party in various other contexts

Origin of greens

From Middle English grenes, equivalent to green + -s. Compare Saterland Frisian Gräinieten (“vegetable”), West Frisian grienten (“vegetables, greens”), Dutch groenten (“vegetables, greens”), German Low German Gröönten (“vegetables, greens”), Danish grøntsager (“vegetables”), Swedish grönsaker (“vegetables”).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

In reference to the ancient Roman and medieval Byzantine racing faction, a calque of Latin prasinī (“Leek-Greens”) or factio prasina (“the leek-green faction”) and Byzantine Greek Πράσινοι (Prásinoi, “Leek-Greens”).

Words formed from greens

Phrases with greens

50 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with greens

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about greens

What does greens mean?
Greens means leaves and leaf-like parts of edible plants when eaten as vegetables or in salads.
What is greens in Tamil?
Greens in Tamil is கீரை (kīrai). See Greens meaning in Tamil.
How do you use greens in a sentence?
If you're a beginning gardener and have never grown a vegetable in your life before, try greens.
What part of speech is greens?
Greens can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce greens?
Greens is pronounced /ɡɹiːnz/.

Words near greens in the dictionary

  1. Greenpeacers
  2. Greenridge
  3. Greenrod
  4. greenroom
  5. greenrooms
  6. greens
  7. Greens Beach
  8. Greens Creek
  9. Greens Norton
  10. greens out
  11. greens up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: greens (page history and authors); Greens (page history and authors); greens (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); greens (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-greens.ogg.

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