aconite

noun

ac·​o·​nite ˈa-kə-ˌnīt 

plural aconites

1

: monkshood

2

: the dried poisonous tuberous root of a common monkshood (Aconitum napellus) used especially formerly for its medicinal properties (as in relieving pain)

3

: winter aconite

… they began planting one million daffodil, crocus, and aconite bulbs.

—Walter Karp

Examples of aconite in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Nathaniel Hawthorne alludes to wolfsbane’s association with witchcraft in Young Goodman Brown, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle references infamous nineteenth-century aconite poisonings in one of Sherlock’s cases, The Adventure of the Speckled Band. —Laura Murphy, JSTOR Daily, 28 Feb. 2025

Wildflowers, like delicate white snowdrops and brilliant yellow aconite, are beginning to flower several months early. —Dharna Noor, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Feb. 2023

Winter aconite, which reach 3 to 4 inches in height, is easy to grow and will prosper in full sun or dappled shade and will form large colonies, spreading by seed. —Tim Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 4 Apr. 2021

Winter aconite will perform best if the soil moisture is more consistent year-round, versus dry during the dormant season, as many other spring-flowering bulbs prefer. —Tim Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 4 Apr. 2021

Snowdrops have been flowering for a week, the aconite about to burst. —Heather E. Goodman, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Feb. 2021

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French, borrowed from Latin aconītum, borrowed from Greek akónīton, perhaps of pre-Greek substratal origin

Note: The notion in late antiquity that the word was derived from Greek akonit́ī "without dust," hence, "without a struggle, effortless," referring to the efficacy of the poison, is fanciful.

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing aconite

• winter aconite

Rhymes for aconite

• acolyte
• allanite
• alunite
• amberlite
• ammonite
• amorite
• amphitrite
• analyte
• anchorite
• andesite
• anhydrite
• ankerite

Kids Definition

aconite

noun

ac·​o·​nite ˈak-ə-ˌnīt 

1

: monkshood

2

: a drug obtained from the poisonous root of the common Old World monkshood

Medical Definition

aconite

noun

ac·​o·​nite ˈak-ə-ˌnīt 

1

: monkshood

2

: the dried tuberous root of a monkshood (Aconitum napellus) formerly used as a cardiac and respiratory sedative