loosestrife

loosestrife noun: any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are in different taxonomic families.

Noun

loosestrife (countable and uncountable, plural loosestrifes)

Any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are in different taxonomic families.
- He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 91
- Most loosestrifes thrive in the northern part of the United States and Canada but only a few make good garden plants for the South.2008, Allan M. Armitage, Herbaceous Perennial Plants, 3rd edition, page 672

plural	loosestrifes

Calque of Ancient Greek λυσιμάχειον (lusimákheion), as if from λύσις (lúsis, “loosening”) + μάχη (mákhē, “battle, strife”).

What does loosestrife mean?: Loosestrife means any of certain flowering plants of the genera Lythrum and Lysimachia, which are in different taxonomic families.
What is loosestrife in Vietnamese?: Loosestrife in Vietnamese is thiên khuất, trân châu. See Loosestrife meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is loosestrife?: Loosestrife is a noun.
What is the plural of loosestrife?: The plural of loosestrife is loosestrifes.

Adapted from Wiktionary: loosestrife (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-loosestrife.wav.

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