lily

See also: Lily

English

A lily plant

Etymology

From Middle English lilie, from Old English lilie, from Latin līlia, plural of līlium, from Ancient Greek λείριον (leírion). See there for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪli

Noun

lily (plural lilies)

A floral arrangement containing white lilies in Wesley Methodist Church, Singapore

1. Any of several flowers in the genus Lilium of the family Liliaceae, which includes a great many ornamental species.
2. Any of several species of herbaceous flower which may or may not resemble the genus Lilium in some way, and which are not closely related to it or each other.
3. (heraldry) The flower used as a heraldic charge; also commonly used to describe the fleur-de-lis.
4. The end of a compass needle that should point north, traditionally often ornamented with the figure of a lily or fleur-de-lis.
   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica:

     But sailing further, it veers its lily to the west.

5. (card games, usually in the plural) A royal spade in auction bridge.
6. (cartomancy) The thirtieth Lenormand card, representing calmness and maturity.

Alternative forms

• lilly (obsolete)

Derived terms

• adobe lily
• African lily
• Amazon lily
• annunciation lily
• arum lily
• atamasco lily
• Atamasco lily
• Atamosco lily
• avalanche lily
• Aztec lily
• Barbados lily
• bead lily
• belladonna lily
• Bermuda lily
• blackberry lily
• blood lily
• Bolander's lily
• bullhead lily
• butterfly lily
• calla lily
• Canada lily
• candelabra lily
• Catesby's lily
• Christmas lily
• cobra lily
• cow lily
• day lily
• desert lily
• Easter lily
• Egyptian water-lily
• fairy lily
• false lily of the valley
• fawn lily
• feathery false lily of the valley
• fire lily
• fragrant water lily
• gild the lily
• glacier lily
• glory lily
• goldband lily
• Guernsey lily
• Humboldt's lily
• Ifafa lily
• impala lily
• Inca lily
• Jacobean lily
• Josephine's lily
• kaffir lily
• lemon lily
• Lenten lily
• Lent lily
• leopard lily
• lilied
• lily crucifix
• lily foot
• lily-handed
• lily iron
• lily-livered
• lily of the field
• lily of the Incas
• lily of the Nile
• lily of the valley
• lily-of-the-valley
• lily pad
• lily-white
• Madonna lily
• mariposa lily
• Mariposa lily
• May lily
• nodding blue lily
• orange lily
• palm lily
• panther lily
• peace lily
• Peruvian lily
• pineapple lily
• piss lily
• plantain lily
• pond lily
• rain lily
• resurrection lily
• rock lily
• rush lily
• sand lily
• Scarborough lily
• scarlet lily beetle
• sea lily
• slime lily
• spear lily
• spider lily
• star lily
• stinking corpse lily
• stone-lily
• straw lily
• superb lily
• surprise lily
• swamp lily
• sword lily
• tiger lily
• tiger-lily
• torch lily
• trout lily
• Turk's cap lily
• water lily
• water-lily
• white water lily
• wild lily-of-the-valley
• yellow pond lily
• yellow pond-lily
• zephyr lily

 

Translations

flower in the genus Lilium

• Albanian: zambak (sq), lil
• Arabic: زَنْبَق m (zanbaq), سَوْسَن (sawsan)
• Armenian: շուշան (hy) (šušan)
• Atayal: boxi'
• Belarusian: лі́лія f (lílija)
• Bulgarian: ли́лия (bg) f (lílija), крем (bg) m (krem)
• Catalan: lliri (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 百合 (zh) (bǎihé), 百合花 (zh) (bǎihéhuā)

• Czech: lilie (cs) f
• Danish: lilje c
• Dutch: lelie (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: lilio
• Faroese: lilja f
• Finnish: lilja (fi)
• French: lys (fr) m
• Galician: lirio (gl) m, azucena (gl) f
• Georgian: შროშანი (šrošani)
• German: Lilie (de) f
• Greek: κρίνο (el) n (kríno)

  Ancient Greek: κρίνον n (krínon)

• Hebrew: שׁוֹשָׁן (he) (šōšān)
• Hindi: कुमुदिनी (hi) (kumudinī)
• Hungarian: liliom (hu)
• Icelandic: lilja (is) f
• Indonesian: lili (id)
• Irish: lile f
• Italian: giglio (it) m
• Japanese: ユリ (ja) (yuri), 百合 (ja) (ゆり, yuri)
• Kazakh: лала (lala)
• Korean: 나리 (ko) (nari), 백합 (ko) (baekhap)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: sosin (ku) f, zembeq (ku) f

• Latin: līlium (la) n
• Lithuanian: lelija f
• Livvi: liilii
• Macedonian: лилјан m (liljan)
• Malay: lili (ms)
• Maltese: ġilju
• Maori: rengarenga
• Middle English: lilie
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: сараана цэцэг (saraana ceceg), сараана (mn) (saraana)

  Mongolian: ᠰᠠᠷᠠᠨ᠎ᠠ
  ᠴᠡᠴᠡᠭ (saran-a čečeg), ᠰᠠᠷᠠᠨ᠎ᠠ (saran-a)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lilje (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: lilje f

• Old Norse: lilja f
• Persian: سوسن (fa) (susan)
• Polish: lilia (pl) f, lilija (pl) f (archaic)
• Portuguese: lírio (pt) m
• Romanian: crin (ro) m, lilie f
• Russian: ли́лия (ru) f (lílija), кри́н (ru) m (krín)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: љиљан m, замбак m, крин m

  Roman: ljiljan (sh) m, zambak m, krin (sh) m

• Slovak: ľalia f
• Spanish: azucena (es) f, lirio (es) m
• Swedish: lilja (sv) c
• Tagalog: liryo
• Tajik: сӯсан (süsan), савсан (tg) (savsan)
• Tamil: பலுக்கல் (ta) (palukkal)
• Thai: ลิลลี่ (lil-lîi)
• Turkish: zambak (tr)
• Ukrainian: ліле́я f (liléja)
• Urdu: سوسن (ur) f (sūsan)
• Vietnamese: bách hợp (vi), loa kèn
• Volapük: (plant) lelaplan, lel (vo), (older term) liäf
• Welsh: lili f
• Yakut: лилия (liliya)
• Yiddish: ליליע f (lilye)

Adjective

lily (not comparable)

1. (slang, derogatory) White (as a racial epithet).
   • 1994, Colleen Faulkner, Captive:

     "Can't you see I'm trying to save your lily ass?" "I don't want to be saved," Tess moaned as he hauled her up and into his lap with one beefy hand.

Anagrams

• illy

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɪlɪ]

Participle

lily

1. inflection of lít:
   1. inanimate masculine plural past active participle
   2. feminine plural past active participle