: any of various chiefly fall-blooming leafy-stemmed composite herbs (Aster and closely related genera) with often showy heads containing disk flowers or both disk and ray flowers
Fifty varieties of plants are available for purchase, including four milkweed varieties, several grasses, native purple coneflower, cardinal flower, great blue lobelia, meadow blazing star, New England aster, prairie smoke, wild columbine and wild lupine.—Journal Sentinel, 8 Apr. 2024 Samphire and leafier greens such as sea aster are harvested from the test field and served in restaurants across Terschelling.—Cameron Pugh, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Mar. 2024 The best-selling set comes with 15 stems and a mix of flower and leaf varieties, including roses, snapdragons, poppies, asters, daisies, and grasses.—Sarah Toscano and Jennifer Maldonado, EW.com, 22 June 2023 In the fall, goldenrods, sunflowers, and several varieties of asters begin to bloom, while February marks the arrival of spicebush blossoms, rhododendrons, and flame azaleas.—Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 5 Mar. 2024 Drawing inspiration from desert oases, the Wild About U Bouquet is arranged with some of The Bouqs Co.’s favorite flowers and plants, including alstroemeria, solidago, and aster, according to the brand.—Andie Kanaras, Peoplemag, 3 Feb. 2024 This is the case for all plants in the sunflower family, including daisies, yarrow, goldenrod, asters, coreopsis, and bachelor's buttons.—Deb Wiley, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 Feb. 2024 The set contains 756 pieces that create an adorable array of faux flowers, including roses, daisies, and asters.—Clara McMahon, Peoplemag, 7 Feb. 2024 Steamed sole scattered with sauteed chanterelles and enriched with a dilly butter sauce was further flattered by bright green and delicately crisp leaves of sea aster, a member of the daisy family whose flavor suggests raw oysters and seaweed.—Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'aster.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
(sense 1) borrowed from New Latin, genus name, going back to Latin aster-, astēr "a plant, probably Aster amellus," borrowed from Greek aster-, astḗr "star, the plant Aster amellus"; (sense 2) borrowed from Greek aster-, astḗr "star" — more at star entry 1
Noun suffix
Middle English, from Latin, suffix denoting partial resemblance
: a system of microtubules arranged in rays around a centriole at either end of the mitotic or meiotic spindle
The first stage in the formation of the mitotic spindle in a typical animal cell is the appearance of microtubules in a "sunburst" arrangement, or aster, around each centrosome during early prophase.—Gerald Karp, Cell and Molecular Biology: Concepts and Experiments, 6th edition
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