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star thistle

noun

Definition of star thistle

1 : a widely naturalized spiny Old World knapweed (Centaurea calcitrapa) with purple flowers

— called also caltrops

2 : any of various knapweeds related to the star thistle

Examples of star thistle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

 Working Dogs for Conservation has trained dogs to find spotted knapweed in Montana, Chinese bush clover in Iowa, yellow star thistle in Colorado, rosy wolf snails in Hawaii and brown tree snakes in Guam. — Washington Post, "Wags and weeds: Invasive plants meet match in detection dogs," 24 Aug. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'star thistle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of star thistle

1578, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Statistics for star thistle

Last Updated

9 Sep 2019

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Time Traveler for star thistle

The first known use of star thistle was in 1578

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Rhyming Dictionary: Words that rhyme with star thistle

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