Definition of "dahlia" [dah•lia]

• Any of several plants of the genus Dahlia native to the mountains of Mexico, Central America, and Colombia, having tuberous roots and showy, rayed, variously colored flower heads. (noun)
• The flower head of one of these plants. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The term "dahlia" is used for the first time in 1791, when Cavanilles publishes Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum."
• "A dahlia from the garden of AKS, shot Labor Day weekend 2008."
• "Modern botanists agree that the dahlia is native to Mexico and Guatemala, but how did it come to be cultivated so widely all over the world today for its showy flowers?"