ragweed
/ˈɹæɡˌwid/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.20 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A plant of the genus Ambrosia, native to North America and a common invasive species elsewhere, particularly noted for producing pollen that triggers hay fever.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Fig. 1.—Spiculated pollens of ragweeds (ambrosias) low in protein. […] In the cocklebur (Xanthium americanum) and the rough wild elder (Iva ciliata), the spicules are shorter, being 0.7 and 0.5 microns, and the reaction is proportionately less active than with the ragweeds (ambrosias). […] While the grass pollens have so light a coat that they are frequently crushed in the ordinary process of mounting, the ragweed (ambrosias) pollen grains resist pressure between two glass slides carried to the point of crushing the glass."
- "RAGWEED (Jeffogia Fingerolia) : The hayfever king, ragweed, brings tears to the eyes of grown men."
- "The fields, being rough and stony, and wholly unfit for the plough, were mostly devoted to the pasturing of sheep and cattle; […] and in many of the inclosures, ragweeds and rushes usurped supremacy over the scanty herbage : but these were not my property."
Etymology
Etymology tree English ragwort Proto-West Germanic *weud Old English wēod Middle English weed English weed blend English ragweed Alteration of earlier ragwort; presumably equivalent to ragged + weed, with "rag" referring to the tattered appearance of the plant's leaves. Compare Middle English ragwed (“butcher's broom”), of uncertain linguistic relationship.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɹæɡˌwid/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Phrases
annual ragweed
coastal ragweed
common ragweed
common ragweed fruit fly
Cuman ragweed
dwarf bur ragweed
flatspine burr ragweed
giant ragweed