Word.ws English Dictionary

ivy

/ˈaɪvi/

ivy noun: any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.

ivy: any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera
Image: Dominicus Johannes Bergsma, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

ivy (countable and uncountable, plural ivies)

  1. Any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.
    • Hidden timber elements, lintels and roof tiles have also been replaced, in addition to gaining a new paint job and guttering drainage, and the removal of ivy that was damaging the exterior.2023 March 8, “Network News: Pwllheli 'box gets a makeover”, in RAIL, number 978, page 22
  2. (broadly) Any similar plant of any genus.

Proper noun capitalized: Ivy

Ivy (plural Ivys or Ivies)

  1. A unisex given name from English.
    • Little Ivy's life, as the months pass on, is a quiet, uneventful one, but exceedingly happy withal: - - - "You have a strange name, my dear," the old lady says one day, and the child answers in her serious, old-fashioned way, "Yes, so everyone has always said. You know my mamma died when I was...1882 Something to Read. (Edited by) Edwin John Bret: Something to read novelette. page 254
    • Kind people apply all the milder words to your face; only Father ever called it ugly. Ugly Ivy mingy as her name. Father himself was handsome and drunken. Mother had wanted 'Ivy' simple and yet pretty and for once stuck to her guns. You wished she hadn't.1974, Patrick White, The Cockatoos: Shorter Novels and Stories., Cape, →ISBN, page 204
    1. A female given name from English; popular in the UK in the beginning of the 20th century.
    2. (rare) A male given name from English.
      • Ivy Andrews, Ivy Calvin, Ivy Lee
  2. (rare) A diminutive of the male given name Ivan.
    • Ivy Olson, Ivy Williamson
  3. A surname from English.

Noun (2) capitalized: Ivy

Ivy (plural Ivies)

  1. (informal) A university that is part of the Ivy League.

ivy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

ivy in Hindi

आइवी, आईवी

ivy in Tamil

ஐவி

ivy in Marathi

आयव्ही, आयवी

ivy in Urdu

عشق پیچاں, لبلاب, لتر, پیچک
More languagesFewer languages
ivy in Bengali
আইভি
ivy in Telugu
ఐవీ, ఐవి
ivy in Malayalam
തായ്ത്തടിയുള്ളതോ, മുകളിലേയ്ക്ക് പടർന്നുകയറുന്നതോ
ivy in Kannada
ಐವಿ, ಐವೀ
ivy in Punjabi
ਆਈਵੀ
ivy in Gujarati
આઈવી, આઇવી
ivy in Odia
ଆଇଭି
ivy in Nepali
आइभी, आइवी, आईभी
ivy in Arabic
لَبْلَاب lablāb
ivy in Persian
عشقه 'ašaqe, پاپیتال pâpitâl, سن san, بلوه balve
ivy in Vietnamese
thường xuân

Examples of ivy in a sentence

  • If there is ivy overgrowing things, then we shall clean it up.
  • Figure wears a taenia horizontally over her brow and a spray of ivy in her hair.
  • Along the riverbanks lie enchanted old gardens, with blueberried ivy spilling over their gray stone walls.

All 20 example sentences with ivy

Forms of ivy

Noun
pluralivies
pluralIvies
Proper noun
pluralIvys
pluralIvies

Plural of ivy: ivies

Origin of ivy

From Middle English ivi, from Old English īfiġ, from Proto-West Germanic *ibig, *ibag, *ibah, from Proto-Germanic *ibahs (compare West Flemish iefte, Low German Eiloov, Ieloof, German Efeu), from Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)ebʰ- (compare Welsh efwr (“black elder”), Ancient Greek ἴφυον (íphuon, “spike-lavender, Lavandula Spica”)).

From ivy, the name of a plant. An ivy branch used to be hung outside an establishment to advertise that it sold alcohol, so it may originally been an occupationational surname for the proprietor of such an establishment.

Ellipsis of Ivy League.

Words formed from ivy

Phrases with ivy

Questions about ivy

What does ivy mean?
Ivy means any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.
What is ivy in Hindi?
Ivy in Hindi is आइवी, आईवी. See Ivy meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is ivy?
Ivy can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ivy?
Ivy is pronounced /ˈaɪvi/.
What is the plural of ivy?
The plural of ivy is ivies.

Words near ivy in the dictionary

  1. IVth
  2. IVTS
  3. Ivucktoke
  4. IVUS
  5. ivver
  6. ivy
  7. ivy arum
  8. ivy broomrape
  9. Ivy City
  10. Ivy Day
  11. ivy geranium

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ivy (page history and authors); Ivy (page history and authors); ivy (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ivy (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ivy (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ivy (Nepali, 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ivy.ogg.

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