Meaning & use
lyrate
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparabletechnicalbiology
Shaped like a lyre, especially of a leaf that is broad at the tip and narrower toward the base, with side lobes.
Grammar: Rarely compared; it is used before a noun or after a linking verb: a lyrate leaf, the leaf is lyrate.
Patterns
- a lyrate leaf
The oak species has lyrate leaves with deep lobes on both sides.
Botanists describe the fiddle-leaf fig's foliage as broadly lyrate.
The herbarium sheet showed a plant with a lyrate leaf and small flowers.
Common combinations
- lyrate leaf
- The mustard plant has a lyrate leaf with a large end lobe.
- lyrate lobes
- Lyrate lobes narrow toward the stem.
- lyrate shape
- The pattern had a lyrate shape like an old instrument.
- lyrate horns
- Some antelope have lyrate horns that curve outward.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lyre-shaped
- Lyre-shaped is the plain-English way of saying lyrate and is better for non-specialists.
- pinnatifid
- Pinnatifid describes leaves cut into lobes along a central axis in general, whereas lyrate is a specific kind where the end lobe is largest.
Word family
Commonly confused: lyrate or lyrical?
lyrate vs lyrical
Lyrical describes poetic or song-like expression, while lyrate describes a physical lyre-like shape.
Practice
A botanist calls a leaf lyrate. What does the leaf look like?
Choose one answer.
Lyrate means lyre-shaped, with side lobes and a larger rounded tip. The other shapes describe different leaf types.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lyrate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.