Alfalfa

//ælˈfælfə// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A plant, principally of Medicago sativa, grown as a pasture crop. uncountable

    "“No place for rabbits now, but I could easy build a few hutches and you could feed alfalfa to the rabbits.”"

  2. 2
    leguminous plant grown for hay or forage wordnet
  3. 3
    A type or breed of this plant. countable
  4. 4
    important European leguminous forage plant with trifoliate leaves and blue-violet flowers grown widely as a pasture and hay crop wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    An unincorporated community in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States.
  2. 2
    An unincorporated community in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States, originally named Boise.
  3. 3
    Ellipsis of Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

Synonyms

All synonyms
lucernemedicago sativa

Example

More examples

"The girls who go, sickle on their shoulders, to cut alfalfa for the rabbits."

Etymology

Etymology 1

PIE word *h₁éḱwos Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *HéHḱus Proto-Indo-European *h₁éḱwos Proto-Indo-Iranian *Háćwas Proto-Iranian *Hácwah Proto-Iranian *Hástiš Proto-Iranian *HacwaHastiš Old Median *aspāstišder. Arabic فَصْفَص (faṣfaṣ)bor. Old Spanish alfalfez Spanish alfalfabor. English alfalfa From Spanish alfalfa, from Old Spanish alfalfez, from Arabic الْفَصْفَصَة (al-faṣfaṣa, “alfalfa, lucerne”).

Etymology 2

From alfalfa, from Spanish, from Arabic.

Related phrases

Alfalfa Countyalfalfa butterflyalfalfa caterpillaralfalfa weevilmedicago sativa

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.