Meaning & use
tulip
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Meanings
nouncountable
A plant that grows from a bulb in spring and bears one large cup-shaped flower on a tall, smooth stem.
Grammar: Countable: one tulip, two tulips; also used before another noun, as in tulip bulb.
Patterns
- a tulip grows
- plant tulips
- a bed of tulips
Every spring, red and yellow tulips open in the park near my house.
She planted tulip bulbs in October so they would flower in April.
The shop sells fresh tulips by the bunch.
nouncountable
The flower of this plant, especially when cut and used for decoration.
Grammar: Countable; often plural when talking about cut flowers in a vase.
Patterns
- a bunch of tulips
- put tulips in a vase
- a tulip in bloom
He brought her a bunch of pink tulips for her birthday.
The tulips on the table had already begun to droop.
She wore a single white tulip pinned to her jacket.
Word forms
| plural | tulips |
|---|
Common combinations
- tulip bulb
- You can buy tulip bulbs at the garden center in autumn.
- tulip field
- Tourists come to see the tulip fields in full color.
- tulip festival
- The town holds a tulip festival every May.
- a bed of tulips
- A bed of tulips lined the path to the front door.
- plant tulips
- We plant tulips along the fence each fall.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- tulip tree noun
- A tall North American tree with tulip-shaped leaves and flowers.
Commonly confused: tulip or turnip?
tulip vs turnip
A turnip is a round root vegetable; a tulip is a spring flower. The sounds are similar, so check the middle letters.
Practice
Which sentence uses tulip correctly?
Choose one answer.
Tulips are flowers, so they are commonly cut and placed in water in a vase. Fried tulips, planting cut flowers, and feeding them to a dog are not usual uses of the word.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tulip”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.