What does "lavender" mean?

Any of a group of European plants, genus, Lavandula, of the mint family.

What is a synonym for "lavender"?

Common synonyms include: amethystine, color, flower, lilac, lilac, lilac colored.

Lavender

//ˈlæv.ən.dɚ// adj, name, noun, verb

adj, name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any of a group of European plants, genus, Lavandula, of the mint family. countable, uncountable
2
a pale purple color wordnet
3
A pale bluish purple colour, like that of the lavender flower. countable, uncountable
4
any of various Old World aromatic shrubs or subshrubs with usually mauve or blue flowers; widely cultivated wordnet
5
A kind of film stock used for creating positive prints from negatives as part of the process of duplicating the negatives. historical, uncountable

Verb

1
To decorate or perfume with lavender. transitive
"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."

Adjective

1
Having a pale purple colour.
2
Pertaining to LGBT people and rights.
"“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."
3
Pertaining to lesbian feminism; opposing heterosexism.

Adjective

1
of a pale purple color wordnet

Proper Noun

1
A surname. countable, uncountable
2
A female given name from English. countable, uncountable
"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."
3
An unincorporated community in Floyd County, Georgia, United States, named after a storekeeper. countable, uncountable
4
An unincorporated community in Kittitas County, Washington, United States, named after John Lavender. countable, uncountable
5
A subzone of Kallang, Singapore. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

amethystine color flower lilac lilac lilac colored

Example

More examples

"There was lavender as far as the eye could see."

Etymology

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.

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