kangaroo paw
noun
Simple meaning
Any of different perennial flowering plants of the family Haemodoraceae, endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kanggeroopawSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kæŋɡɚˈuˈpɔ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Any of various perennial flowering plants of the family Haemodoraceae, endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.
Sedgelike spring-flowering herb having clustered flowers covered with woolly hairs; Australia
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Any of various perennial flowering plants of the family Haemodoraceae, endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.
Used this way, kangaroo paw is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.