Word.ws English Dictionary

sensitive fern

sensitive fern noun: onoclea sensibilis, a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized deciduous perennial fern.

sensitive fern: onoclea sensibilis, a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized deciduous perennial fern
Image: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sensitive fern (plural sensitive ferns)

  1. Onoclea sensibilis, a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized deciduous perennial fern.

Forms of sensitive fern

pluralsensitive ferns

Origin of sensitive fern

From the observation by early American settlers that the plant is very sensitive to frost, the fronds dying quickly when first touched by it.

Questions about sensitive fern

What does sensitive fern mean?
Sensitive fern means onoclea sensibilis, a coarse-textured, medium to large-sized deciduous perennial fern.
What part of speech is sensitive fern?
Sensitive fern is a noun.
What is the plural of sensitive fern?
The plural of sensitive fern is sensitive ferns.

Words near sensitive fern in the dictionary

  1. sensitises
  2. sensitising
  3. sensitive
  4. sensitive compartmented information
  5. sensitive female chord progression
  6. sensitive fern
  7. sensitive ferns
  8. sensitive pea
  9. sensitive peas
  10. sensitive plant
  11. sensitive plants

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sensitive fern (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: “sensitive fern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sensitive_fern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.