Meaning & use
morning glory
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A fast-growing climbing plant with funnel-shaped flowers, usually blue, purple or pink, that open in the morning and wilt by afternoon.
Grammar: Countable for plants (three morning glories) and uncountable for the plant in general.
Patterns
- morning glory on a fence
- a morning glory vine
A morning glory has wrapped itself around the porch railing.
The blue flowers of the morning glory were open when we had breakfast.
She planted morning glory seeds along the garden wall.
nouncountabletechnical
A rare, long, tube-shaped roll cloud that can appear at dawn and stretch for hundreds of kilometres, seen in northern Australia.
Grammar: Usually capitalised in some contexts, as the Morning Glory cloud.
Patterns
- the morning glory cloud
Glider pilots travel to Queensland to ride the morning glory cloud.
A morning glory can stretch across the whole sky at sunrise.
Scientists study how a morning glory forms over the Gulf.
Word forms
| plural | morning glories |
|---|
Common combinations
- morning glory vine
- The morning glory vine climbed up the trellis.
- blue morning glory
- A blue morning glory opened beside the gate.
- grow morning glories
- They grow morning glories to cover the ugly fence.
- morning glory seeds
- Morning glory seeds should be soaked overnight before planting.
- morning glory flower
- Each morning glory flower lasts only a day.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bindweed
- Bindweed is a close relative and often a pest, while morning glory is the garden plant grown for its flowers.
- convolvulus
- Convolvulus is the scientific or older gardening term for a plant group that includes morning glories.
- climber
- Climber is any plant that climbs, so it is much more general than morning glory.
Word family
- morning noun
- the early part of the day
- glory noun
- great beauty or splendour
- glorious adjective
- very beautiful or impressive
- moonflower noun
- a relative whose flowers open in the evening
Commonly confused: morning glory or bindweed?
morning glory vs bindweed
Bindweed looks similar but is usually a weed that strangles other plants, whereas morning glory is deliberately planted.
Practice
The funnel-shaped flowers on the fence open at sunrise and fade by afternoon, so they are probably a ____.
Choose one answer.
Morning glory flowers open at dawn and wilt later in the day. Sunflowers, tulips and cacti do not behave that way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “morning glory”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.