Word.ws English Dictionary

hyacinth

Syllables: hy·a·cinth/ˈhaɪ̯əsɪnθ/

hyacinth noun: any bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus, native to the Mediterranean and South Africa.

hyacinth: any bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus, native to the Mediterranean and South Africa
Image: The wub, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

hyacinth (plural hyacinths)

  1. Any bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus, native to the Mediterranean and South Africa.
    • On life's long round by chance I found / A dell impearled with dew, / Where hyacinths, gushing from the ground, / Lent to the earth heaven's native hue / Of holy blue.1889, Mathilde Blind, “[Love in Exile. Song X.] ‘On Life’s Long Round’.”, in The Ascent of Man, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 177
  2. A variety of zircon, ranging in color from brown, orange, reddish-brown and yellow; a jacinth.

Proper noun capitalized: Hyacinth

IPA/ˈhaɪ.ə.sɪnθ/

Hyacinth

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Hyacinthus.
  2. (rare) A male given name from Ancient Greek.
  3. A female given name from English; one of the less common flower names used since the 19th century.
    • "Cynthia seems to me such an out-of-the-way name, only fit for poetry, not for daily use."
      "It is mine," said Mrs. Kirkpatrick, in a plaintive tone of reproach. "I was christened Hyacinth, and her poor father would have her called after me. I'm sorry you don't like it."
      […]
      "Yes; Hyacinth! It's the...1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “A Crisis”, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC, pages 104 and 119

hyacinth meaning in Assamese, Tagalog and Persian

hyacinth in Assamese

plant of the genus Hyacinthus
মেটেকা meteka

hyacinth in Tagalog

plant of the genus Hyacinthus
hasinto

hyacinth in Persian

plant of the genus Hyacinthus
سنبل sonbol

Forms of hyacinth

pluralhyacinths

Plural of hyacinth: hyacinths

Origin of hyacinth

From Middle English jacinth, partly from Old French jacincte, from Medieval Latin jacintus, and partly from Old English iacinþ, from Medieval Latin jacinthus, both from Latin hyacinthus, from Ancient Greek ὑάκινθος (huákinthos, “any of several dark blue flowers”), ultimately from a non-Indo-European Mediterranean language. Re-Latinized in the 16th century.

From Latin Hyacinthus, a saint's name from Ancient Greek Ὑάκινθος (Huákinthos), the name of a mythological character.

Words formed from hyacinth

Phrases with hyacinth

Questions about hyacinth

What does hyacinth mean?
Hyacinth means any bulbous plant of the genus Hyacinthus, native to the Mediterranean and South Africa.
What is hyacinth in Assamese?
Hyacinth in Assamese is মেটেকা (meteka). See Hyacinth meaning in Assamese.
What part of speech is hyacinth?
Hyacinth can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hyacinth?
Hyacinth is pronounced /ˈhaɪ̯əsɪnθ/.
What is the plural of hyacinth?
The plural of hyacinth is hyacinths.

Words near hyacinth in the dictionary

  1. HY"D
  2. hy-spy
  3. hyaa
  4. hyacine
  5. hyacines
  6. hyacinth
  7. hyacinth bean
  8. hyacinth beans
  9. hyacinth macaw
  10. hyacinth of Peru
  11. hyacinth orchid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hyacinth (page history and authors); Hyacinth (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-hyacinth.wav.

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