noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any plant suited for life in a habitat where water is scarce, such as in a desert or chaparral. Such plants may be succulent, have small or reduced leaves, or spines.
2. 2
   plant adapted for life with a limited supply of water; compare hydrophyte and mesophyte wordnet
3. 3
   A desert plant

Synonyms

All synonyms

desert plantdesert plantxericxeric plantxerophilexerophilous plant

Etymology

From xero- (“dry”) + -phyte (“plant”).

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