Meaning & use
arnica
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
A plant with yellow daisy-like flowers, or a preparation made from it, used on the skin for bruises and sprains.
Grammar: No plural; it names a plant or a substance, not individual items. For products, use it before another noun: arnica cream.
Patterns
- arnica cream
- arnica gel
- arnica for bruises
- apply arnica to something
She rubbed arnica cream on the bruise after the fall.
Some athletes use arnica to ease muscle soreness.
The health shop sells arnica in tablets and in a gel.
nouncountable or uncountablebiology
The plant itself, a mountain herb of the daisy family with bright yellow flowers.
Grammar: As a plant it can be countable: an arnica, two arnicas. As a mass of plants or a crop it stays uncountable.
Patterns
- grow arnica
- arnica flowers
- a species of arnica
Arnica grows wild in the mountains of central Europe.
The meadow was full of arnica and other yellow wildflowers.
Common combinations
- arnica cream
- Keep a tube of arnica cream in the first-aid kit.
- arnica gel
- The pharmacist recommended arnica gel for the swelling.
- arnica tablets
- He takes arnica tablets when his back aches.
- apply arnica to
- Apply arnica to the bruise twice a day.
- a dose of arnica
- The homeopath gave her a dose of arnica.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wolfsbane
- A different mountain plant used in tiny doses as medicine; it is far more poisonous than arnica and is not a substitute for it.
- calendula
- Another daisy-family plant used on the skin; calendula suits grazes and rashes, while arnica is chosen mainly for bruises.
Word family
- arnica montana noun
- The scientific name of the species most often sold as arnica.
Commonly confused: arnica or annika?
arnica vs annika
Annika is a personal name and sounds similar, but it has nothing to do with the plant or the medicine.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses arnica correctly.
Choose one answer.
Arnica is uncountable here, so it takes no plural or article, and the usual preposition is on: put arnica on a bruise. 'Some arnicas' and 'an arnica' wrongly treat it as a countable object, and 'to' does not fit this pattern.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “arnica”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.