Meaning & use
herbicide
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
A chemical product that kills weeds or other unwanted plants.
Grammar: Countable for a type (a strong herbicide), uncountable for the substance (sprayed with herbicide).
Patterns
- spray herbicide on something
- herbicide against something
The farmer sprayed herbicide on the field to stop the weeds.
Some herbicides kill only broad-leaved plants and leave grass alone.
Rain washed the herbicide into the stream.
Word forms
| plural | herbicides |
|---|
Common combinations
- apply herbicide
- Workers apply herbicide along the railway tracks.
- spray with herbicide
- The path was sprayed with herbicide in April.
- selective herbicide
- A selective herbicide targets weeds but not the crop.
- herbicide resistance
- Herbicide resistance is spreading among some weeds.
- herbicide residue
- Tests found herbicide residue in the soil.
Synonyms and how they differ
- weedkiller
- Weedkiller is the everyday word on garden-shop labels, whereas herbicide sounds more technical.
- pesticide
- Pesticide is a broader term covering products that kill insects and fungi as well as plants.
- defoliant
- A defoliant makes leaves fall off rather than killing the whole plant.
Opposites
Word family
- herb noun
- a plant used for flavor or medicine
- herbivore noun
- an animal that eats plants
- insecticide noun
- a chemical that kills insects
- fungicide noun
- a chemical that kills fungi
Commonly confused: herbicide or pesticide?
herbicide vs pesticide
Pesticide covers any pest killer, while herbicide is only for plants.
Practice
The gardener bought a ___ to kill the weeds between the paving stones.
Choose one answer.
A herbicide kills plants. An insecticide targets insects and a fungicide targets fungi, so neither suits weeds.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “herbicide”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.