rose

/ɹəʊz//ɹoʊz/

rose noun: a shrub of the genus Rosa, with red, pink, white or yellow flowers. Also the simple past of rise.

Image: Agnes Monkelbaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

rose (countable and uncountable, plural roses)

A shrub of the genus Rosa, with red, pink, white or yellow flowers.
A flower of the rose plant.
- Iu. 'Tis but thy name that is my Enemy:
  Thou art thy ſelfe...
  What's in a name? That which we call a Roſe,
  By any other word would ſmell as ſweete...c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- O my Luve's like a red, red rose
  That's newly sprung in june...1794, Robert Burns, "A Red, Red Rose:"
A plant or species in the rose family. (Rosaceae)
Something resembling a rose flower, such as a compass rose.
A bouquet of circles.
The rose flower, usually depicted with five petals, five barbs, and a circular seed.
A nontraditional tincture in Canadian heraldry, corresponding to pink.
A purplish-red or pink color, the color of some rose flowers.
A round nozzle for a sprinkling can or hose.
The usually circular base of a light socket in the ceiling, from which the fitting or chandelier is suspended.
Any of various large, red-bodied, papilionid butterflies of the genus Pachliopta.
Any of various flower-like polar graphs of sinusoids or their squares.

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A graph with only one vertex.
A fairy chess piece that can make knight moves in a circular path.
- The rose moves like a knight, but can continue making knight moves so long as there’s a 45-degree rotation between each jump. […] I can’t help but wonder if a full team of roses could even play against each other.2018 October 12, aabicus, “My 7 Favorite Fairy Chess Pieces”, in The Daily SPUF
A type of sex toy shaped like a rose.
- Me after ignoring all bad reviews on a rose from Shein and it literally starts electrocuting my clih.

Verb

rose (third-person singular simple present roses, present participle rosing, simple past and past participle rosed)

(poetic, transitive) To make rose-colored; to redden or flush.
- A maid yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
(poetic, transitive) To perfume, as with roses.
- the very nape of her white neck
  Was rosed with indignation1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

Adjective

rose (not comparable)

Having a purplish-red or pink color; rosy.

Proper noun capitalized: Rose

Rose

A female given name from Germanic.
- Celia: Therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry.
  Rosalind. From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports.Act I, Scene II
- Sentiment hallows the vowels of Delia; /Sweet simplicity breathes from Rose;~1886 William Ernest Henley, A Ballade of Ladies' Names, Gleeson White:Ballades and Rondeaus, Read Books 1887, page 19
A surname from Middle English.
- While recording, Rose said, a female passerby “encouraged her to speak with Nicholas, so she...rang his front doorbell.”2024 December 6, “Battery Charge For Racist Nick Fuentes”, in The Smoking Gun, archived from the original on 11 Feb 2025
An unincorporated community in Rock County, Nebraska.
A town and hamlet therein, in Wayne County, New York.
An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Mayes County, Oklahoma.
A town in Waushara County, Wisconsin.
A number of townships, including in Illinois, Michigan (2), Ohio and Pennsylvania, listed under Rose Township.
A community in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
A hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SW7754).

Noun (2) capitalized: Rose

Rose (plural Roses)

(Ireland, informal) A regional contestant in the annual Rose of Tralee contest.
(Ireland, informal) The winner of that year's contest.

Also used as

rose is also the simple past of rise.

rose is also the past participle of rise.

rose is also the alternative spelling of rosé.

rose meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

rose in Hindi

flower: गुलाब gulāb, गुल gul
shrub: गुलाब gulāb, गुल gul
color: गुलाबी gulābī

rose in Tamil

flower: ரோஜா rōjā
shrub: நிலத்தாமரை nilattāmarai, ரோஜா rōjā

rose in Marathi

flower: गुलाब gulāb
shrub: गुलाब gulāb
color: गुलाबी gulābī

rose in Urdu

flower: گلاب gulāb
shrub: گلاب gulāb
color: گلابی gulābī

More languagesFewer languages

rose in Bengali: গোলাপ gōlap
rose in Telugu: గులాబి gulābi, గులాబిపువ్వు gulābipuvvu
rose in Malayalam: റോസ ṟōsa, റോസ് ṟōsŭ
rose in Kannada: ಗುಲಾಬಿ gulābi
rose in Punjabi: ਗੁਲਾਬ gulāb
rose in Gujarati: ગુલાબ gulāb
rose in Odia: ଗୋଲାପ golāpa
rose in Sanskrit: षतपुष्पि ṣatapuṣpi, वर्ध vardha
rose in Sinhala: රෝස මල rōsa mala, රෝස rōsa
rose in Assamese: গোলাপ gülap
rose in Pashto: ګلاب gulāb
rose in Tagalog: rosas
rose in Arabic: وَرْدَة warda, ورد بلدي, وردة بلدي warda baladi
rose in Malay: mawar, ros
rose in Indonesian: bunga mawar, mawar, merah muda
rose in Persian: رز roz, گل سرخ gol-e sorx, ورد vard, گل
rose in Thai: กุหลาบ gù-làap
rose in Vietnamese: hoa hồng
rose in Myanmar: နှင်းဆီ hnang:hci
Sindhi: گلاب glāb
Kashmiri: گُلاب gulāb

Examples of rose in a sentence

Foreign markets were lost as our currency rose versus their valuta.
The air was tense as the judge rose to deliver his verdict.
She read my mind and promptly rose to get me a glass of water.

All 40 example sentences with rose

Forms of rose

Noun
plural	roses
plural	Roses
Verb
third-person singular present	roses
present participle	rosing
past participle	rosed
past	rosed

Plural of rose: roses

Origin of rose

From Middle English rose, roose, from Old English rōse, but with its vowel influenced by Old French rose, both from Latin rosa. cognates and more remote and uncertain etymology The Latin is of uncertain origin, but likely via Oscan from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) (Aeolic ϝρόδον (wródon)), from Old Persian *vr̥dah (“flower”) (compare Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬭𐬆𐬜𐬀- (var^əδa-), Sogdian [script needed] (ward), Parthian wâr, late Middle Persian [Term?] (gwl /⁠gul⁠/), Persian گل (gol, “rose, flower”), and Middle Iranian borrowings including Old Armenian վարդ (vard, “rose”), Aramaic וַרְדָּא (wardā) / ܘܪܕܐ (wardā), Arabic وَرْدَة (warda), Hebrew וֶרֶד (wéreḏ)), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dʰos (“sweetbriar”) (compare Old English word (“thornbush”), Latin rubus (“bramble”), Albanian hurdhe (“ivy”)). Possibly ultimately a derivation from a verb for "to grow" only attested in Indo-Iranian (*Hwardʰ-, compare Sanskrit वर्धति (vardhati), with relatives in Avestan).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

From French rosé (“pinkish”).

Words formed from rose

Phrases with rose

160 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with rose

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rose

What does rose mean?: Rose means a shrub of the genus Rosa, with red, pink, white or yellow flowers.
What is rose in Hindi?: Rose in Hindi is गुलाब (gulāb), गुल (gul), गुलाबी (gulābī). See Rose meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is rose?: Rose can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rose?: Rose is pronounced /ɹəʊz/ (UK).
What is the plural of rose?: The plural of rose is roses.

Words near rose in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: rose (page history and authors); Rose (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: en-uk-rose.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-rose.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Gsinti-Rose.wav.

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