Phloem

//ˈfləʊ.əm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A vascular tissue in land plants primarily responsible for the distribution of sugars and nutrients manufactured in the shoot. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    (botany) tissue that conducts synthesized food substances (e.g., from leaves) to parts where needed; consists primarily of sieve tubes wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bastliber

Example

More examples

"The phloem, composed of sieve elements cells which connect to form a tube, conducts food and water both ways in a plant."

Etymology

First attested in 1872. From German Phloëm, coined by Swiss botanist Carl Nägeli in 1858 from Ancient Greek φλόος (phlóos, “husk, bark”) + a Greek-sounding ending -em (cf. System).

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