silver dollar
1
8.6
- noun
:
lunares
- In the summer, the silver dollar displays beautiful flowers that attract many butterflies to the garden.
Examples
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CUT TO: 50 animals at the bottom of the bed, with eyes as big as silver dollars, watching them silently.
Fiction book (1994) -
The box was full of exquisitely tiny tortoises, no bigger than silver dollars, all busily crawling over and under each other.
Fiction book (1998) -
Sabine squeezed the silver dollar Parsifal had given her until she felt the metal edge cut painfully into her palm.
Fiction book (1998) -
The gardener planted silver dollar seeds in the spring to enjoy their fragrant purple flowers later in the season.
-
The silver dollar plant's unique round, flat seedpods make it a popular choice for indoor decorations.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A garden plant with purple flowers and round silver seed pods used for decoration
A garden plant with purple flowers and round flat silver seedpods used for decoration
A garden plant with fragrant purple flowers and round, flat, silvery seedpods used for decoration
A plant with purple flowers and flat silver-white seedpods used for decoration
A plant with fragrant purple flowers and round silver seedpods used for decoration
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a dollar coin made of silver' is directly and compositionally derived from 'silver' (the metal) + 'dollar' (a one-dollar coin), so a learner who knows both words can infer the compound's meaning. This noun–noun compounding pattern is common cross-linguistically for coin names and follows transparent semantic composition, making it immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Silver dollar comes from the plant's round, flat seedpods that look like small, shiny silver dollars. That's why the name means a decorative plant used in dried flower arrangements.