flora

noun

flo·​ra ˈflȯr-ə How to pronounce flora (audio)
plural floras also florae ˈflȯr-ˌē How to pronounce flora (audio)
-ˌī
1
: a treatise on or list of the plants of an area or period
2
: plant, bacterial, or fungal life
especially : such life characteristic of a region, period, or special environment
fossil flora
intestinal flora
compare fauna

Did you know?

Flora Has Roots in Roman Mythology

Flora means "flower" in Latin, and Flora was the Roman goddess of spring and flowering plants, especially wildflowers and plants not raised for food. She was shown as a beautiful young woman in a long, flowing dress with flowers in her hair, strewing flowers over the earth. English preserves her name in such words as floral, floret, and flourish. A region's flora may range from tiny violets to towering trees. The common phrase "flora and fauna" covers just about every visible living thing.

Examples of flora in a Sentence

an amazing variety of coastal flora the floras of different coastal regions
Recent Examples on the Web Her new Poppy and Cherry collections, which were fired in a gas kiln for 12 to 15 hours, channel Dutch Delftware while depicting local flora. Nicole Demarco Dalya Benor Caitie Kelly Juan A. Ramírez Monica Mendal Janet Siroto, New York Times, 14 Mar. 2024 Davis Mountains: Another recommendation from the Ladybird Johnson Center is the array of flora in the vicinity of the Davis Mountains. Krista Simmons and J.d. Simkins, Sunset Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024 Regardless of how people choose to see the desert’s spring flora, word about this year’s bloom is getting out. Maura Fox, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Mar. 2024 Other exotic plants crowd out important native plants, and some are toxic to local flora and fauna. Bob Hirshon, Discover Magazine, 2 Mar. 2024 But even in the increasingly harsh climate, flora, fauna and the people of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe learned to adapt and thrive. Reis Thebault, Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2024 Tiffany Pereira, an associate research scientist at the institute, said the lake’s size now can be beneficial to local flora and fauna. Ty O'Neil, Fortune, 24 Feb. 2024 The details of the landscape and flora transported me back to the days before the occupation by Europeans. Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Feb. 2024 Indiscriminate pesticide use contaminates soil, water, and air, compromising biodiversity and harming fauna and flora. Heslley MacHado Silva, Scientific American, 5 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'flora.' 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

borrowed from New Latin, from Latin Flōra, the goddess of flowers and the flowering season, thematicized derivative from the stem of flōr-, flōs "flower, bloom" — more at flower entry 1

Note: In the early modern period, the names of figures from ancient myth or history were featured in book titles as symbols of the subject matter—as Urania for a work on astronomy, Mithridates for a work on languages, and Atlas for a cartographical work. Along such lines the name of the Roman goddess of flowers was used in the title of Latin works dealing with the cultivation of plants, as Flora, seu de florum cultura libri quattuor (Rome, 1633) by the Jesuit scholar Giovanni Battista Ferrari (1584-1655). A book by the Danish physician and naturalist Simon Paulli (1603-80) entitled Flora Danica, Det er: Dansk urtebog ("Danish Flora, that is, a Danish herbal book") (Copenhagen, 1648) described the medicinal plants of Denmark. Here the name Flora is used as a sort of metonym for the plants of the country, a usage also taken up in a Latin poem introducing the work, in which Balthica Flora ("Baltic Flora") is described as bringing forth "swelling sprouts" (turgentia germina) from her bosom. Similar uses of Flora followed, as in the Flora Sinensis ("Chinese Flora") (Vienna, 1656) by the Polish Jesuit Michał Boym (ca. 1612-59). In the eighteenth century flora began to be used generically outside of book titles as a collective name for the plants of a region or habitat. For details. and examples of Flora used metonymically in seventeenth-century Latin prose, see Dominik Beerens, "The Meaning of Flora," Humanistica Lovaniensia, vol. 68, no. 1 (Spring, 2019), pp. 237-49.

First Known Use

1777, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of flora was in 1777

Dictionary Entries Near flora

Cite this Entry

“Flora.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flora. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

flora

noun
flo·​ra ˈflōr-ə How to pronounce flora (audio)
ˈflȯr-
plural floras also florae ˈflō(ə)r-ˌē How to pronounce flora (audio)
ˈflȯ(ə)r-,
-ˌī
: plants or plant life especially of a region, period, or environment

Medical Definition

flora

noun
plural floras also florae ˈflō(ə)r-ˌē How to pronounce flora (audio) ˈflȯ(ə)r- How to pronounce flora (audio)
-ˌī
1
: plant life
especially : the plants characteristic of a region, period, or special environment
fossil flora
compare fauna
2
: the microorganisms (as bacteria or fungi) living in or on the body
the beneficial flora of the intestine
potentially harmful skin flora
floral adjective

More from Merriam-Webster on flora

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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