Word.ws English Dictionary

peony

/ˈpiːəni/

peony noun: a flowering plant of the genus Paeonia with large fragrant flowers.

peony: a flowering plant of the genus Paeonia with large fragrant flowers
Image: Jebulon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

peony (plural peonies)

  1. A flowering plant of the genus Paeonia with large fragrant flowers.
    • The root of the Male Peony fresh gathered has been found by experience to cure the falling-sickness.1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 219
    • There might ye ſee the pioney ſpread vvide, / The full-blovvn roſe, the ſhepherd and his laſs, / Lap-dog and lambkin vvith black ſtaring eyes, / And parrots vvith tvvin cherries in their beak.1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 3
  2. A dark red colour.
    • She was a fine and handsome girl—not handsomer than some others, possibly—but her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence to colour and shape.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), page 18

peony meaning in Arabic, Persian, Thai and Vietnamese

peony in Arabic

Paeonia genus of flowering plants
عُود الصَّلِيب ʕūd aṣ-ṣalīb, فَاوَانِيَا fāwāniyā

peony in Persian

Paeonia genus of flowering plants
صدتومانی, پیونی, پائونیا

peony in Thai

Paeonia genus of flowering plants
โบตั๋น boo-dtǎn

peony in Vietnamese

Paeonia genus of flowering plants
mẫu đơn

Forms of peony

pluralpeonies
alternative formpaeony
alternative form (obsolete)pioney
alternative form (obsolete)piony

Plural of peony: peonies

Origin of peony

From Old English peonie, peonia et al., from Latin paeōnia; later reinforced by Anglo-Norman peonie, Old French peone, pyoine (French pivoine), from Latin paeōnia, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek παιωνία (paiōnía), from Ancient Greek Παιών (Paiṓn, “Paeon, the physician of the gods”)/παιών (paiṓn, “a physician”).

Words formed from peony

Questions about peony

What does peony mean?
Peony means a flowering plant of the genus Paeonia with large fragrant flowers.
What is peony in Arabic?
Peony in Arabic is عُود الصَّلِيب (ʕūd aṣ-ṣalīb), فَاوَانِيَا (fāwāniyā). See Peony meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is peony?
Peony is a noun.
How do you pronounce peony?
Peony is pronounced /ˈpiːəni/.
What is the plural of peony?
The plural of peony is peonies.

Words near peony in the dictionary

  1. peonize
  2. peonized
  3. peonizes
  4. peonizing
  5. peons
  6. peony
  7. peonylike
  8. peop.
  9. people
  10. people carrier
  11. people carriers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: peony (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: en-us-peony.ogg.

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