Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
swamp candles

swamp candles

9.9
A plant with tall yellow flower spikes that grows in wet marshes
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : velas de pantano
  • Hikers stopped to admire the tall yellow spikes of swamp candles by the riverbank.

Examples

  • The wetland was filled with bright swamp candles blooming in the summer sun.

  • Botanists documented a large cluster of swamp candles growing beside the pond.

  • Look at those swamp candles!

  • I saw swamp candles blooming near the lake.

  • Hikers stopped to admire the tall yellow spikes of swamp candles by the riverbank.

  • The wetland was filled with bright swamp candles blooming in the summer sun.

  • Botanists documented a large cluster of swamp candles growing beside the pond.

Synonyms

Lysimachia terrestris
vsswamp candles
  • Specialized
9.9

A North American plant with spikes of yellow flowers that grows in wet places like marshes and pond edges

is found especially in marshy areas rather than in all wet habitats

Surface Forms

swamp candles singular
swamp candles plural

Morphology

swamp + candles

The phrase combines the transparent constituents 'swamp' (a wetland) and 'candles' (objects named for their shape), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to candle-shaped things found in swamps — here, plant spikes. The use of 'candles' as a visual metaphor for shape is predictable in English noun-noun compounding, making the expression immediately understandable from its parts.

Etymology

The plant name swamp candles comes from its bright, tall spikes of yellow flowers that stand up like candles in a wet swamp. So, swamp candles now means the yellow-flowered plant you find in marshy places.