spirea

C2+ Topic:Family & Relationships

US /spaɪˈriə/ UK /spaɪˈriːə/ See IPA manual

noun

Meanings

1

noun
a flowering shrub of the rose family with clustered white or pink blooms

The garden hedge of spirea burst into froth-white bloom in May.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a flowering shrub of the... spiraeameadowsweet

Word family

Related forms spiraea

Etymology

Modern Latin Spiraea, from Ancient Greek speiraía ('a plant used for garlands'), from speîra ('coil, wreath').

Spiraea Latin speiraía Ancient Greek speîra Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Family & Relationships

# spirea

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

## Meanings
1. a flowering shrub of the rose family with clustered white or pink blooms

## Examples
- The garden hedge of spirea burst into froth-white bloom in May.

## Synonyms
- spiraea
- meadowsweet

## Related Forms
- spiraea

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: Spiraea
- Root: speiraía
- Root: speîra

## Etymology
Modern Latin Spiraea, from Ancient Greek speiraía ('a plant used for garlands'), from speîra ('coil, wreath').

## AI Etymology
Spirea comes through Modern Latin Spiraea, from Ancient Greek speiraía ('a plant used for garlands'), from speîra ('coil, wreath'). The historical chain includes Latin Spiraea, Ancient Greek speiraía, and Ancient Greek speîra. Older glosses in the chain include "a plant used for garlands" and "coil, wreath", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, spirea is best read as borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a flowering shrub of the rose family with clustered white or pink blooms". related forms include spiraea. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Family & Relationships

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