Lavender Meaning
/ˈlæv.ən.dəː/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny of a group of European plants, genus, Lavandula, of the mint family.
nounA pale bluish purple colour, like that of the lavender flower.
Sentence Examples
There was lavender as far as the eye could see.
This is a beautiful field of lavender in France.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer's field was filled with the sweet smell of purple ____ flowers in bloom.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The field was filled with beautiful ____ flowers that filled the air with their very sweet and calming scent.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Medieval Latin lavendulader. Old French lavendrebor. Middle English lavendre English lavender From Middle English lavendre, from Anglo-Norman lavendre (French lavande), from Medieval Latin lavendula, possibly from Latin lividus (“bluish”), but influenced by lavō (“to wash”) due to the use of lavender in washing clothes.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"“Now in here,” their guide, sweating dark tentacles into his tab collar, briefed them, “you are going to see the members of the third sex, the lavender crowd this city by the Bay is so justly famous for."
— 1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 5, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 81:
"My sother (significant other) and I have been together almost nineteen years. Exactly half of the usual wedding vows taken traditionally by non-lavender couples — for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, — have been characteristic of our relationship."
— 1981 August 22, Nancy Walker, “Still Coming Out, After All These Years”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 6, page 11:
"Short shafts of dying sunlight mingled with the deepening grey, lavendering the horizon, and all nature seemed to hush as though waiting to welcome the night."
— 1986, Katherine Gibson Fougera, With Custer's Cavalry, page 47:
"She wanted to give the child a unique, meaningful name; among those she and Linda liked, she said, were Laurel and Lavender. Or if it was a boy, perhaps Sage . “Why not Spinach or Cabbage?” Brian had scoffed."
— 1974, Alison Lurie, The War Between the Tates: A Novel, Open Road Media, published 2012, →ISBN:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The farmer's field was filled with the sweet smell of purple ____ flowers in bloom.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The field was filled with beautiful ____ flowers that filled the air with their very sweet and calming scent.