heather
/ˈhɛðɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.87 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An evergreen plant, Calluna vulgaris, with spiky leaves and small purple, pink, or white flowers.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The cutting sides were gay with heather in bloom, and masses of dainty Scots bluebells, while patches of clear sky overhead were bringing life and colour to the sea."
- "She struck his fancy - that pretty girl with the quaint name: sweet Heather Bell, as Mr. Travers always called her. "The name was a fancy of her godfather, an eccentric bachelor," the lady explained. " She was the youngest of three daughters, and the other two were called, respectively, 'Lily' and 'Rose'. 'Call this one Heather,' said Mr. Stewart, who loved Scotland and her purple mountains, 'she will grow up like the heather, perhaps - strong, hardy, a wild flower, worth of a hundred of your garden rarities.'"
- ""I like Hazel and Heather," Angel said, after a while. "They're both names of plants, so they sort of go with Rose." "I don't have no plant, I got a little girl," Rose Rose said, smiling."
- "“Psychotherapists are not immune to the same stereotypes that we all have, and I think they could become even more relevant for psychotherapists than for other professions [both medical and nonmedical], because they are embarking on this intimate, potentially long-term relationship with these [clients],” said Heather Kugelmass, a doctoral student in sociology at Princeton University. Kugelmass is the author of the study (PDF), which was published Wednesday in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior."
Etymology
From Middle English hather, hathir, from Old English *hǣddre and hǣþ (“heather”), cognate with Scots hedder, hadder, heddir (“heather”), Saterland Frisian Heede (“heather”), West Frisian heide (“heather”), Dutch heide (“heather”), German Low German Heide, Heid (“heather”), German Heide (“heather”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hather, *hǣddre
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɛðɚ/
- British English: /ˈhɛðə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
heathers (plural)
hadder (alternative, dialectal)
hether (alternative, obsolete)
hather (alternative, obsolete)
Derived Forms
Phrases
American heather (Hudsonia tomentosa
beach heather
bell heather
heather-bell
common heather
double heather
false heather
golden heather