Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
tongueflower

tongueflower

9.9
An orchid with blue to purple petals and small tongue-shaped parts at the flower base
  • noun
translation icon : orquídea lengua
  • The tongueflower is admired for its striking blue petals and unusual lip structure.

Examples

  • She added a rare tongueflower to her orchid collection last spring.

  • The tongueflower blooms beautifully in spring.

  • Botanists studied the tongueflower to better understand its unique pollination mechanism.

  • Look at that tongueflower!

  • The tongueflower is admired for its striking blue petals and unusual lip structure.

  • She added a rare tongueflower to her orchid collection last spring.

  • Botanists studied the tongueflower to better understand its unique pollination mechanism.

Synonyms

tongue-flower
vstongueflower
  • Specialized
9.9

An orchid with blue or purple flowers and a tongue-shaped part on the flower's lip

is identical in meaning but written without a hyphen as one word

Surface Forms

tongueflower singular
tongueflowers plural

Morphology

tongueflower = tongue + flower (transparent) = tongue + flower

The compound denotes a flower characterized by tongue-shaped structures, so the meaning is directly inferable from 'tongue' + 'flower'.

Etymology

Tongueflower is simply made from the English words tongue and flower, with tongue meaning 'tongue' the body part and pointing to the long, flat part of the orchid that looks like a tongue. So a tongueflower is an orchid named for its tongue-shaped petal.