verdant

play

adjective ver·dant \ˈvər-d^ənt\

Definition of verdant

1a : green in tint or colorb : green with growing plants verdant fields
2 : unripe in experience or judgment : green 9a, b

verdancy

play \ˈvər-d^ən(t)-sē\ noun

verdantly

play \ˈvər-d^ənt-lē\ adverb

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Recent Examples of verdant from the Web

Porto is another must-visit; from picnicking in Parque da Cidade do Porto to touring the verdant valleys of Douro.

— Daily Intelligencer, "The Best ‘Stopover’ You’ll Ever Build Into Your Travel Plans," 18 July 2017
Mr. Landau’s seven-decade career featured verdant artistic peaks — including his work for directors Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and Tim Burton — and long stretches of arid desert.

— adam bernstein, Washington Post, "Martin Landau, Oscar-winning actor who played heroes and villains, dies at 89," 16 July 2017
Reeves’s vision of the aftermath, in Dawn, was so surprising and effective because of how verdant the world looked—with human influence receding, nature became overgrown and lush, and forests reclaimed all of the pitiful manmade infrastructure.

— david sims, The Atlantic, "War for the Planet of the Apes Is an Epic Slog," 12 July 2017
Divided into eight sections, the trail runs along Jordan's western border from the verdant farmlands of Um Qais in the north to the desert landscapes of the south, ending at the Red Sea.

— Smithsonian, "Discover more about the Land of Hospitality.," 6 July 2017
In the distance were open fields, forested hills, and the verdant wetlands of Bark Meadow Brook.

— denise coffey, Courant Community, "Wyndham Land Trust Hosts Summer Solstice Celebration," 5 July 2017
Best time The drive through the California-Arizona desert into the mountains of northern Arizona is best in spring, with colorful wildflowers giving way to verdant forests.

— terry gardner, latimes.com, "Road trip of the future: Travel with John Muir, where the scenery is unreal and the kids fight over who sits in the back," 29 June 2017
When the conditions are ripe for romance - no rain, dark skies, kill the moonlight - thousands of the fireflies will flirt on a verdant tract of land laced with hardwood trees and a burbling river.

— andrea sachs, chicagotribune.com, "For 2 spectacular weeks, mating fireflies light up Smoky Mountains," 15 June 2017
Pay for throwing away The government has promised new infrastructure, including a multibillion dollar incinerator to be built on one of the island's most verdant locations.

— farah master, The Christian Science Monitor, "As Hong Kong nears its waste capacity, authorities ponder solutions," 14 June 2017

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

Did You Know?

English speakers have been using "verdant" as a ripe synonym of "green" since the late 16th century, and as a descriptive term for inexperienced or naive people since the 1820s. (By contrast, the more experienced "green" has colored our language since well before the 12th century, and was first applied to inexperienced people in the 1540s.) "Verdant" is derived from the Old French word for "green," vert, which in turn is from Latin virērē, meaning "to be green." Today, "vert" is used in English as a word for green forest vegetation and the heraldic color green. Another descendant of "virere" is the adjective virescent, meaning "beginning to be green."

Origin and Etymology of verdant

contracted from Medieval French verdoyant, from present participle of verdoyer “to be green, turn green,” going back to Old French verdoier, from verd, vert “green” (going back to Latin viridis, from a base *wir-, whence virēre “to show green growth, be green” of uncertain origin) + -oier, factitive verb suffix, going back to Latin -idiāre, originally representing variant pronunciation (or spelling variant) of -izāre -ize ◆Latin viridis and virēre have been linked to Lithuanian visti “to multiply, breed,” veisti “to breed, rear,” as well as to Old English wīse “sprout, stalk,” Old High German wisa “meadow,” though the semantic connections are vague enough to make this a very tenuous hypothesis.