What does "ragwort" mean?

Any of a number of wild flowering plants with yellow flowers in the family Asteraceae, mostly belonging to Senecio and related genera.

What is a synonym for "ragwort"?

Common synonyms include: benweed, butterweed, butterweed, common ragwort, groundsel, ragweed.

Ragwort

//ˈɹæɡwəːt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any of a number of wild flowering plants with yellow flowers in the family Asteraceae, mostly belonging to Senecio and related genera. countable, uncountable
"Ragwort is under the command of dame Venus, and cleanses, digests and discusses."
2
American ragwort with yellow flowers wordnet
3
widespread European weed having yellow daisylike flowers; sometimes an obnoxious weed and toxic to cattle if consumed in quantity wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

benweed butterweed butterweed common ragwort groundsel ragweed

Example

More examples

"In their experiments, the researchers grew ragwort plants in a greenhouse and then left the plants open to threatening insects, such as leaf-eating caterpillars or root-feeding beetle larvae."

Etymology

From rag (referring to the ragged leaves) + wort.

More for "ragwort"

Synonyms Sentences Pronunciation Translate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonyms See usage examples Check pronunciation Browse writing guides

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