Glume

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A basal, membranous, outer sterile husk or bract in the flowers of grasses (Poaceae) and sedges (Cyperaceae).

    "[T]he glume in some alpine grasses, and the scales of the ament in the salix rosea, rose-willow, grow into leaves; and produce other kinds of monsters."

  2. 2
    small dry membranous bract found in inflorescences of Gramineae and Cyperaceae wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bladebractflagfrondleafleaflet

Example

More examples

"[T]he glume in some alpine grasses, and the scales of the ament in the salix rosea, rose-willow, grow into leaves; and produce other kinds of monsters."

Etymology

From Latin gluma (“husk of grain”). The root can also be seen in glubere (“to peel”).

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