Spirea

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of the many flowering shrubs of the genus Spiraea, that have clusters of white or pink flowers.
  2. 2
    any rosaceous plant of the genus Spiraea; has sprays of small white or pink flowers wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of the flowering plants of the genus Astilbe.
  4. 4
    a Japanese shrub that resembles members of the genus Spiraea; widely cultivated in many varieties for its dense panicles of flowers in many colors; often forced by florists for Easter blooming wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
astilbe japonicaspiraea

Example

More examples

"In the Seventeen-Hundreds, people used willow bark to reduce a sick person's high body temperature. In Eighteen-Sixty, researchers at the Bayer Company in Germany copied the salicylic acid found in willow bark. They created acetyl salicylic acid. They called it aspirin, for the spirea plant which also contains the natural chemical. Aspirin first was made into its present pill form about one-hundred years ago."

Etymology

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek σπεῖρα (speîra, “coil”).

More for "spirea"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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