Vetch

//vɛt͡ʃ// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of several leguminous plants, of the genus Vicia, often grown as green manure and for their edible seeds.
  2. 2
    any of various climbing plants of the genus Vicia having pinnately compound leaves that terminate in tendrils and small variously colored flowers; includes valuable forage and soil-building plants wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of several similar plants within the subfamily Faboideae.

Synonyms

All synonyms
algaeautophytebeanbrackenbrown algaeclimber

Example

More examples

"Ladybugs are beetles that like crimson clover and hairy vetch."

Etymology

From Middle English vecche, fecche, ficche, from Old Northern French veche, variant of Old French vece, from Latin vicia. Doublet of fitch.

Related phrases

American vetchBithynian vetchCarolina wood vetchFrench vetchHawaiian vetchHungarian vetchKashubian vetchbard vetchbitter vetchblack vetchblister vetchbush vetch

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