Word.ws English Dictionary

purslane

/ˈpɜːslən/US/ˈpɝslən/

purslane noun: any of the family Portulacaceae (order Caryophyllales) of succulent plants.

purslane: any of the family Portulacaceae (order Caryophyllales) of succulent plants
Image: KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

purslane (usually uncountable, plural purslanes)

  1. (usually) Any of the family Portulacaceae (order Caryophyllales) of succulent plants.
    • ASPARAGUS, cauliflowers, imperial Sileſia, royal and cabbage lettuces, burnet, purſlain, cucumbers, naſturtian flowers, peaſe and beans ſown in October, artichokes, ſcarlet ſtrawberries, and kidney beans.1767, A Lady [Hannah Glasse], The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Eaſy […] , page 326
    1. (usually) common purslane or summer purslane (Portulaca oleracea), a widely-grown edible plant
    2. (usually) moss-rose purslane, moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora)
  2. (usually) winter purslane, miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)
  3. (usually) pink purslane (Claytonia sibirica)
  4. (usually) Halimione portulacoides
  5. (usually) Honckenya peploides
  6. (usually) shoreline purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum)
  7. (usually) purslane tree (Portulacaria afra)

purslane meaning in Pashto and Tagalog

purslane in Pashto

purslane
تندولی tandólaj

purslane in Tagalog

a plant of the family Portulacaceae
kulasiman, alusiman, ulasiman

Synonyms of purslane

All synonyms of purslane

Forms of purslane

pluralpurslanes
alternative formpurslain

Origin of purslane

From Old French porcelaine, probably an alteration of Latin porcilaca (“purslane”) (related to portulaca (“purslane”)) to assimilate it with porcelaine (“porcelain”).

Words formed from purslane

Phrases with purslane

Questions about purslane

What does purslane mean?
Purslane means any of the family Portulacaceae (order Caryophyllales) of succulent plants.
What is purslane in Pashto?
Purslane in Pashto is تندولی (tandólaj). See Purslane meaning in Pashto.
What part of speech is purslane?
Purslane is a noun.
How do you pronounce purslane?
Purslane is pronounced /ˈpɜːslən/ (UK).
What is the plural of purslane?
The plural of purslane is purslanes.

Words near purslane in the dictionary

  1. pursiut
  2. pursive
  3. pursiveness
  4. purslain
  5. purslains
  6. purslane
  7. purslane tree
  8. purslanes
  9. pursley
  10. Pursleys
  11. Purslow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purslane (page history and authors); تندولی (Pashto) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-purslane.wav.

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