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spinach plant

spinach plant

1.6
A garden plant with dark green leaves that people eat
  • noun
  • /ˈspɪnɪtʃ plænt/
translation icon : planta de espinaca
  • After harvesting, she washed the spinach plants thoroughly before cooking them.

Examples

  • These were the spinach plants, obviously, that just fell over and died.

  • And then there are three little spinach plants and then two red romaine.

  • The gardener decided to plant more spinach plants to ensure a fresh supply of vegetables for the summer.

  • Growing healthy spinach plants requires plenty of sunlight and nutrient-rich soil.

Synonyms

spinach
vsspinach plant
94 1.0

A green leafy vegetable eaten raw or cooked

focuses on thick leaves from a southwestern Asian cultivated plant
Spinacia oleracea
vsspinach plant
  • Specialized
6.5

A leafy green plant with dark edible leaves eaten as spinach

is the common description emphasizing thick leaves used as a vegetable
prickly-seeded spinach
vsspinach plant
  • Indian
8.6

A leafy green plant with small prickly seeds that people grow for its tender dark leaves used in cooking

is the general plant species rather than a named cultivated variety

Surface Forms

spinach plant singular

Morphology

spinach + plant

The meaning 'a plant that is spinach' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'spinach' (the edible leafy vegetable) with 'plant' (a living photosynthetic organism), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the referent. This noun+noun naming pattern for plants is cross-linguistically common and follows ordinary English compounding, making the MWE immediately comprehensible.

Etymology

Spinach plant simply points to the living plant that grows dark, edible leaves called spinach; picture a low green patch full of leaves you pick for a salad. So, spinach plant means 'the plant that produces spinach'.