Rosella

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A parrot belonging to any of the five to eight species in the genus Platycercus (originally specifically Platycercus eximius) which is native to Australia and nearby islands.

    "Molly […] had glimpsed a future, like a rosella, hardly seen, swooping through the high umbrellas of the bush."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable

    "Rosellas, a fruit, I imagine, not very well known, we grew most successfully, its delicious sub-acid making the most splendid substitute for the English red currant; and we varied its uses by transforming the raw material into jam and jelly, and freshly-stewed fruit."

Synonyms

All synonyms
rosehillrosehiller

Example

More examples

"Molly […] had glimpsed a future, like a rosella, hardly seen, swooping through the high umbrellas of the bush."

Etymology

Uncertain; perhaps a variant of Rosehill.

Related phrases

Brown's rosellaTasmanian rosellacrimson rosellaeastern rosellagreen rosellanorthern rosellapale-headed rosellasmutty rosellawestern rosellaplatycercus eximius

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