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

Synonyms:

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

Singular:

cactus

Plural:

cacti, cactuses

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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