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Glite Dictionary
swamp lily

swamp lily

7.7
A plant that grows in wet places with thin stems and small white flowers
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : lirio de pantano
  • While hiking near the marsh, we spotted bright patches of swamp lilies blooming along the water's edge.

Examples

  • The sea cow's hippo-like mouth spurted water into a pond where fat carp wove among purple swamp lilies.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • In the wetland, clusters of swamp lilies stood tall, showcasing their delicate white flowers.

  • The garden featured a stunning display of swamp lilies, thriving in the damp soil and attracting local wildlife.

Synonyms

lizard's-tail
vsswamp lily
  • US
9.9

A plant that grows near water with long curved spikes of small white flowers

is a different common name usually written without a hyphen
Saururus cernuus
vsswamp lily
  • Specialized
9.9

A wetland plant that grows in shallow water and has long white flower spikes like a lizard's tail

is the everyday English name rather than the scientific Latin form

Surface Forms

swamp lily singular
swamp lilies plural

Morphology

swamp + lily

The compound is transparently built from 'swamp' (a wetland) + 'lily' (a flowering plant), so the meaning 'a type of lily that grows in swamps or wet areas' is directly inferable from the constituents. This noun-noun compounding is a productive and cross-linguistically common pattern in English, making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both words.

Etymology

Swamp lily gives a simple picture: swamp shows the wet ground it likes and lily points to its white, lily-like flowers, so the name means 'a plant that grows in wet places and has small white flowers'.