

Dec 20, 2012 This week's theme

Yours to discover



This week's words

wakerife

quadrennium

subjugate

xerophyte

conversazione



Have you found what's common in this week's words?

Enter the contest Discuss

Feedback

RSS/XML Yours to discoverHave you found what's common in this week's words? A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg



xerophyte PRONUNCIATION: (ZEER-uh-fyt)

MEANING: noun: A plant adapted to growing in a very dry or desert environment.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek xero- (dry) + phyton (plant). Earliest documented use: 1897.

USAGE: "Saavik's bemused comment when Captain Howe, her former first officer, had sent her a 'get well cactus' was that on Vulcan it was a superfluous xerophyte."

Keith R.A. DeCandido; Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War; Simon & Schuster; 2004.

See more usage examples of xerophyte in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)





We need your help



Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere



Donate