Meaning & use
perennial plant
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Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
A plant that lives for several years and usually flowers again each season, instead of dying after one year.
Grammar: Countable: a perennial plant, many perennial plants.
Patterns
- a perennial plant that blooms in summer
Lavender is a perennial plant that returns every spring.
We planted a row of perennial plants along the fence so we would not need to replant each year.
A perennial plant may die back in winter but regrow from its roots.
Word forms
| plural | perennial plants |
|---|
Common combinations
- hardy perennial plant
- Hostas are a hardy perennial plant for shady spots.
- flowering perennial plant
- The flowering perennial plant blooms in July.
- herbaceous perennial plant
- A herbaceous perennial plant dies back to the ground each winter.
- plant a perennial plant
- Plant a perennial plant in autumn so the roots can settle.
- drought-tolerant perennial plant
- Sedum is a drought-tolerant perennial plant.
Synonyms and how they differ
- perennial
- Perennial as a noun is the shorter and more usual term, while perennial plant is the fuller phrase.
- hardy plant
- Hardy plant stresses survival in cold weather and not the multi-year life cycle.
- evergreen
- Evergreen describes plants that keep leaves all year, which a perennial may not do.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: perennial plant or annual plant? perennial plant or biennial plant?
perennial plant vs annual plant
An annual plant completes its life cycle in one year, so it must be planted again.
perennial plant vs biennial plant
A biennial plant lives two years, growing leaves in the first and flowering in the second.
Practice
Unlike marigolds, which die each autumn, peonies are a ___ that returns for many years.
Choose one answer.
A perennial plant lives for several years. Annuals die after one year, and biennials live two years, so neither fits a plant that returns for many years.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “perennial plant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.