entire leaf
- noun
- Specialized
:
hoja entera
- You can distinguish the species by checking if it has an entire leaf or a serrated one.
Examples
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The entire leaf fell from the tree.
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She picked up an entire leaf from the ground.
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Maple trees typically have lobed leaves, but this species has an entire leaf margin.
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The botanist identified the plant by its entire leaf and smooth stem.
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The entire leaf of the plant was smooth and free of notches.
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In the garden, we found an entire leaf that was perfectly shaped and undamaged.
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The botanist identified the species by examining the structure of the entire leaf.
Antonyms
How Smooth
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is directly compositional: the adjective 'entire' (in its botanical sense, ‘with a smooth, unindented margin’) modifies 'leaf', yielding ‘a leaf with a smooth margin’. This follows a standard adjective+noun pattern, so a learner who knows both constituent meanings can reliably derive the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The term entire leaf uses entire in the old sense of 'whole' or 'not cut', so it pictures a leaf with a smooth edge and no notches. That's why 'entire leaf' means a leaf with a smooth margin.
