Word.ws English Dictionary

marcescent

marcescent adjective: withered, but still attached.

Adjective

marcescent (not comparable)

  1. (also, figuratively, rare) Withered, but still attached.
    • How often is the flower of human life marcescent, tenacious of its old estate when the blooming-time is past.a. 1893, Edith M. Thomas, The Undertime of the Year, published in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 72 (October 1893), page 452
    • “But,” she answered, “granting that Mon Cul is a remarkable creature, that he is the elder statesman among monkeys, that his marcescent eyelids have opened upon sights and splendors about which the most romantic among us only dream,[…]”1990, Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction, page 75
  2. Able to revive when moistened.

Origin of marcescent

From Latin marcescens, present participle of marcescere.

Questions about marcescent

What does marcescent mean?
Marcescent means withered, but still attached.
What part of speech is marcescent?
Marcescent is an adjective.

Words near marcescent in the dictionary

  1. Marcelo Green Village
  2. marcels
  3. marcesce
  4. marcesced
  5. marcescence
  6. marcescent
  7. marcesces
  8. marcescing
  9. Marcette
  10. marcfortine
  11. marcfortines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: marcescent (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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