buttercup

C2+ Topic:Plants & Agriculture

US /ˈbʌtərˌkʌp/ UK /ˈbʌtəkʌp/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a yellow-flowered wild plant of the genus Ranunculus

The meadow was carpeted with buttercups in June.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a yellow-flowered wild... crowfootranunculus

Word family

Related forms butter cup

Etymology

A compound of butter + cup, named for the flower's buttery-yellow, cup-shaped blossoms. Butter is from Old English butere, from Latin butyrum; cup from Old English cuppe.

butere Old English cuppe Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Plants & Agriculture

# buttercup

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** ˈbʌtərˌkʌp
**IPA (UK):** ˈbʌtəkʌp

## Meanings
1. a yellow-flowered wild plant of the genus Ranunculus

## Examples
- The meadow was carpeted with buttercups in June.

## Synonyms
- crowfoot
- ranunculus

## Related Forms
- butter
- cup

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: butere
- Root: cuppe

## Etymology
A compound of butter + cup, named for the flower's buttery-yellow, cup-shaped blossoms. Butter is from Old English butere, from Latin butyrum; cup from Old English cuppe.

## AI Etymology
Buttercup is a compound of butter + cup, named for the flower's buttery-yellow, cup-shaped blossoms. Butter is from Old English butere, from Latin butyrum; cup from Old English cuppe. Important recorded forms include butere (Old English) and cuppe (Old English). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers a yellow-flowered wild plant of the genus Ranunculus. The wider family includes related words such as butter and cup.

## Topics
- Plants & Agriculture

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buttercup

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