Cactus Definition

kăktəs
cacti, cactuses
noun
Any desert plant of the cactus family, native to the New World, with fleshy stems, reduced or spinelike leaves, and often showy flowers.
Webster's New World
Any of several similar plants.
American Heritage
adjective
Designating a family (Cactaceae) of dicotyledonous plants (order Caryophyllales), including the prickly pear, saguaro, and cereus.
Webster's New World
(Australia, slang) Non-functional, broken, exhausted.
Wiktionary
pronoun

(archaic) A taxonomic genus within the family Cactaceae — original Linnean genus of cactus, rejected in 1905.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Cactus

Noun

Singular:
cactus
Plural:
cacti, cactuses

Origin of Cactus

  • From Latin cactus (“a spiny plant, possibly the cardoon”), from Ancient Greek κάκτος (kaktos)

    From Wiktionary

  • Latin cactus, from Ancient Greek κάκτος (kaktos, “cardoon”), of pre-Greek origin.

    From Wiktionary

  • Latin cardoon from Greek kaktos

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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