Word.ws English Dictionary

moonwort

UK/ˈmuːnwəːt/

moonwort noun: a small fern, Botrychium lunaria (lesser moonwort); later, any member of the genus.

Noun

moonwort (plural moonworts)

  1. A small fern, Botrychium lunaria (lesser moonwort); later, any member of the genus.
    • Moonwort is an herb which they say will open locks, and unshoe such horses as tread upon it.1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 194
  2. (UK, US, regional) Lunaria annua (greater moonwort); also known as honesty and annual honesty.

Forms of moonwort

pluralmoonworts

Origin of moonwort

From moon + wort.

Questions about moonwort

What does moonwort mean?
Moonwort means a small fern, Botrychium lunaria (lesser moonwort); later, any member of the genus.
What part of speech is moonwort?
Moonwort is a noun.
How do you pronounce moonwort?
Moonwort is pronounced /ˈmuːnwəːt/ (UK).
What is the plural of moonwort?
The plural of moonwort is moonworts.

Words near moonwort in the dictionary

  1. moonwashed
  2. moonwatcher
  3. moonwatchers
  4. moonwatching
  5. moonwise
  6. moonwort
  7. moonworts
  8. moony
  9. moop
  10. moor
  11. moor blackbird

Source and license

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