lily
noun
Simple meaning
The flower used as a heraldic charge.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lileeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɪli
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
heraldry
The flower used as a heraldic charge; also commonly used to describe the fleur-de-lis.
The end of a compass needle that should point north, traditionally often ornamented with the figure of a lily or fleur-de-lis.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The flower used as a heraldic charge; also commonly used to describe the fleur-de-lis.
Used this way, lily is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use lily
- “A beautiful white lily bloomed in the garden yesterday.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Broad-leaved evergreen Asiatic shrub with glossy leaves and drooping clusters of white flowers.
Includes species sometimes divided among the following families: Alliaceae.
An Andean herb having umbels of showy pinkish-purple lily-like flowers.
Any of various plants of the genus Agapanthus having umbels of showy blue to purple flowers.
Low-growing perennial plant having usually two large oblong lanceolate leaves and a raceme of small fragrant nodding bell-shaped flowers followed by scarlet berries.
Floating leaves of a water lily.
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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.