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Definition of "amaryllis" []

  • Any of several chiefly tropical American bulbous plants of the genus Hippeastrum grown as ornamentals for their large, showy, funnel-shaped, variously colored flowers that are grouped in umbels. (noun)
  • See belladonna lily. (noun)
  • Any of several similar or related plants. (noun)
  • Used in classical pastoral poetry as a conventional name for a shepherdess. (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.

Use "amaryllis" in a sentence
  • "With my office covered in amaryllis and tulips, I've been grinning all day long!"
  • "And some of the oxalis tribe yield great returns; and cyclamens are exquisite and expensive; and the amaryllis is doubly ditto, ditto; and ixias, and many more are to be grown, if you have room, money, or opportunity."
  • "Of all flowering bulbs, the amaryllis is the easiest to force a flower."