fern

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Definition of fern in English English dictionary

<span class="word-self">Fernspan>
A female given name from the fern plant
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
Any of a group of some twenty thousand species of vascular plants classified in the Division Pteridophyta (formerly known by some as Filicophyta) that lacks seeds and reproduces by shedding spores to initiate an alternation of generations
ferny
Covered in ferns
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
{n} a genus of plants very numerous
ferny
{a} overgrown with or having fern
<span class="word-self">Fernspan>
from the fern plant
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
A fern is a plant that has long stems with feathery leaves and no flowers. There are many types of fern. a type of plant with green leaves shaped like large feathers, but no flowers. Any of about 10,000-12,000 species (division Filicophyta) of nonflowering vascular plants that have true roots, stems, and complex leaves and reproduce by spores. Though ferns were once classified with the primitive horsetails and club mosses, botanists have since made a clear distinction between the scalelike, one-veined leaves of those plants and the more complexly veined fronds of the ferns, which are more closely related to the leaves of seed plants. Ferns come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Many are small, fragile plants; others are treelike (see tree fern). The life cycle is characterized by an alternation of generations between the mature, fronded form (the sporophyte) familiar in greenhouses and gardens and the form that strongly resembles a moss or liverwort (the gametophyte). Ferns are popular houseplants
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
ferne halwes
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
Non-flowering vascular plant, often with feather-like fronds
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
Ancient; old
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
" [saints]
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
A group of about 11,000 species of vascular seedless plants that belong to the division Pterophyta About 75 percent of the various species of ferns are found in the tropics Some ferns grow on the branches of trees as epiphytes
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
[Obs
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
Sincerity
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
Long ago
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
[saints]
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
] "Pilgrimages to
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
A primitive plant feathered-like in appearance
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
{i} type of seedless nonflowering plant
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
They are usually found in humid soil, sometimes grow epiphytically on trees, and in tropical climates often attain a gigantic size
<span class="word-self">fernspan>
An order of cryptogamous plants, the Filices, which have their fructification on the back of the fronds or leaves
fernlike
resembling ferns especially in leaf shape; "the ferny shadows of locust leaves
fernlike
{s} resembling a fern
ferns
plural of fern
ferns
filicopsida
ferny
Of, or pertaining to ferns
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Like a fern, having the shape or feel of a fern
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Abounding in ferns
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{s} pertaining to ferns; fernlike; full of ferns
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abounding in or covered with ferns; "the ferny undergrowth"
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resembling ferns especially in leaf shape; "the ferny shadows of locust leaves"
fern

    Etymology

    [ 'f&rn ] (noun.) before 12th century. From Old English fearn, from Proto-Germanic *farnan (cf. Dutch varen, German Farn), from Proto-Indo-European *pornóm 'wing, feather' (cf. Lithuanian spar̃nas, Albanian fier 'fern', Avestan parɘna, Sanskrit parṇám), from *per- 'feather' (cf. Tocharian B parwa, Old Church Slavonic pero).
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