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Glite Dictionary
🌾 A spiny weed 🤧 A pollen weed
bitterweed

bitterweed

9.6
A weedy plant common in North America that makes pollen causing hay fever and asthma
  • noun
  • /ˈbɪtərˌwid/
  • Specialized
translation icon : ambrosía
  • During the summer, many people suffer from allergies caused by bitterweed pollen.

Examples

  • After a walk in the park, she noticed her asthma acted up due to the bitterweed in bloom nearby.

  • The farmer was concerned that the bitterweed in his field would trigger allergic reactions in his workers.

  • I watched four brown-and-white cows squeeze through a half-closed gate to stand in a ditch and bloat themselves on bitterweed.

    Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

ragweed
vsbitterweed
  • UK
4 6.1

A tall wild plant that makes many people sneeze from its pollen

is mainly found in North America rather than also in Europe
ambrosia
vsbitterweed
  • Specialized
9.8

A plant that makes a lot of pollen and often causes hay fever

is a subset naming several species within the genus not the whole group

Surface Forms

bitterweed singular
bitterweeds plural

Morphology

bitterweed = bitter + weed (transparent) = bitter + weed

Although this sense refers to a specific botanical group (e.g., Ambrosia) and its allergenic properties, the compound itself is still directly interpretable as a bitter weed.

Etymology

The word bitterweed is also used for several North American weeds, including plants in a group called Ambrosia, because they are wild and can have a strong, bitter taste or smell. So bitterweed now often means plants that produce pollen that causes hay fever and asthma.