What does "silversword" mean?

Any member of the genus Argyroxiphium of flowering plants native to Hawaii, with long, narrow leaves sometimes covered in silvery hairs.

What is a synonym for "silversword"?

Common synonyms include: argyroxiphium sandwicense.

Pronounced //ˈsɪlvəsɔːd//.

//ˈsɪlvəsɔːd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any member of the genus Argyroxiphium of flowering plants native to Hawaii, with long, narrow leaves sometimes covered in silvery hairs.
"It takes the silversword twenty years to screw up the energy for its final floral pyrotechnic."
2
low-growing plant found only in volcanic craters on Hawaii having rosettes of narrow pointed silver-green leaves and clusters of profuse red-purple flowers on a tall stem wordnet

"It takes the silversword twenty years to screw up the energy for its final floral pyrotechnic."

From silver + sword.

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