Trefoil

//ˈtɹɛ.fɔɪl// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of several plants of the pea family, having compound, trifoliate leaves; especially one of the genus Trifolium.
  2. 2
    an architectural ornament in the form of three arcs arranged in a circle wordnet
  3. 3
    A symbol having the shape of such leaves, especially when used as an architectural ornament.

    ""The pristine, unbroken condition of the vessel – sometimes called a trefoil jug – caused the entire dig to 'come to a halt,' Søvsø remarked.""

  4. 4
    a plant of the genus Trifolium wordnet
  5. 5
    Ellipsis of trefoil knot. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
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  1. 6
    any of several Old World herbs of the genus Medicago having small flowers and trifoliate compound leaves wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
clovercinquefoilcloverdeuce-acefriezeleash

Example

More examples

"Among field flowers the most noted are the May Lily, the Ground Ivy, the Bluebottle, Camomile and so on; and among herbs, Trefoil, Wormwood, Sorrel, the Nettle and so forth."

Etymology

From Middle English trefoil, from Old French trifoil, trefeul, from Latin trifolium, from tri- (“three”) + folium (“leaf”).

Related phrases

Spanish trefoilaustral trefoilbean trefoilbig trefoilbird's-foot trefoilbirdsfoot trefoilbog bird's-foot trefoil)burgundy trefoilburr trefoilbush trefoilhare's-foot trefoilheart trefoil

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