Nymphaea
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 the European white water lily.
"Guianerius, cap. 8, tract. 15, would have them used twice a day, and when they come forth of the baths, their backbones to be anointed with oil of almonds, violets, nymphæa, fresh capon-grease, etc."
- 2 plural of nymphaeum form-of, plural
- 3 Any species of the genus Nymphaea.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Guianerius, cap. 8, tract. 15, would have them used twice a day, and when they come forth of the baths, their backbones to be anointed with oil of almonds, violets, nymphæa, fresh capon-grease, etc."
Etymology
From Latin nymphaea, from Ancient Greek νυμφαῖα (numphaîa), feminine singular form of νυμφαῖος (numphaîos, “sacred to the nymphs”), from νύμφη (númphē, “nymph”). Sense 2 is a semantic loan from translingual Nymphaea, from the same Latin and Greek.
Inflected forms.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.