lily family
- noun
- /ˈlɪli ˈfæmɪli/
- Specialized
:
familia de los lirios
- Members of the lily family, such as asparagus, are often long-lived and resilient.
- a member of the lily family
Examples
-
The corn plant above is a thick-stemmed member of the lily family.
Academic text (1992) -
A member of the lily family, it has small white flowers, and its leaves resemble those of an iris.
Academic text (1991) -
A similar pattern is found in most members of the lily family, except that the petals and sepals are large and colorful, forming flowers attractive to pollinating insects.
Academic text (1992) -
They are different enough, however, to be classified into separate families, with the rushes considered to be more closely related to members of the lily family than to either sedges or grasses.
Academic text (1992) -
The corn plant above is a thick-stemmed member of the lily family.
-
Aloe vera is a plant from the lily family known for its soothing properties.
Synonyms
A group of flowering plants like lilies and tulips
A group of flowering plants like lilies and other garden flowers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly composed from 'lily' (a type of plant) + 'family' (a grouping of related species); a learner who knows both words will infer it denotes the taxonomic group containing lilies. Although 'family' here is a technical botanical term, the compositional logic is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner can readily understand it.
Etymology
The noun lily family comes from the simple image of a lily plus family: it names a 'group of related plants' that have lily-like flowers. That's why the phrase means plants that are closely related to lilies.
