Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🍋 A lemon herb 🌱 A mint plant
field balm

field balm

8.8
A low-growing herb with lemon-scented leaves used to make calming tea
  • noun
  • /fiːld bɑːlm/
  • UK
translation icon : melisa
  • Many gardeners grow field balm for its lemon-scented leaves.

Examples

  • The tea made from field balm is said to have calming effects.

  • She planted field balm along the border of her herb garden.

  • I love the smell of field balm in the garden.

  • Look at that field balm!

  • Many gardeners grow field balm for its lemon-scented leaves.

  • She planted field balm along the border of her herb garden.

  • The tea made from field balm is said to have calming effects.

Synonyms

lemon balm
vsfield balm
1 3.0

A herb with lemon-scented leaves used in cooking and teas

is the botanical wild low-growing aromatic form rather than culinary use
Melissa officinalis
vsfield balm
  • Specialized
8.1

A lemon-scented herb used in teas and cooking, also called lemon balm

is the low-growing wild aromatic form naturalized in some regions
garden balm
vsfield balm
6.2

A bushy plant with lemon-scented leaves and small white or yellow flowers that people use in teas

is the wild low-growing form that sometimes becomes naturalized
sweet balm
vsfield balm
5.7

A bushy herb in the mint family with lemon-scented leaves, also called lemon balm

is the wild low-growing aromatic variety rather than a garden cultivar

Surface Forms

field balm singular
field balms plural

Morphology

field + balm

The compound 'field balm' can be directly understood as a balm-like (aromatic) plant associated with a field: a B1 learner who knows 'field' and 'balm' would infer a plant/herb from fields with soothing/aromatic qualities. This follows a common noun+noun pattern for plant names (e.g. 'lemon balm', 'field ...') and is cross-linguistically plausible, so the meaning is immediately accessible from the constituents.

Etymology

Field balm may come from the plant's lemon scent and its use for comfort: balm means a 'soothing herb' and field shows it grows in open ground or gardens, so the name points to a lemon-scented herb used for calming teas.