Word
bracken
Phoneticsbrack·en
US/ˈbɹækən/
UK/bɹˈækən/
Definitions
01the plant
n. a large, tough green plant with many small leaves that grows in wild areas.
n. any of several large, coarse ferns of the genus Pteridium, often forming dense thickets and potentially toxic to livestock.
“The children hid among the tall bracken at the edge of the woods.”
“The hillside was covered in thick bracken, which turned a deep rusty brown as the autumn frost set in.”
Literary
Usage
Usually uncountable when referring to the plant mass, but can be countable when referring to specific species.
Synonyms
02an area of ferns
n. a place in the countryside that is covered with these large ferns.
n. an area of land or countryside dominated by the growth of Pteridium ferns.
“We walked through the bracken to reach the hidden path.”
“The hikers struggled to navigate the dense bracken, which obscured the narrow trail leading toward the summit.”
Literary
Usage
Uncountable in this sense.
Synonyms
Real-World Examples
“Already green shoots of bracken are bursting through the blackened earth and that will crowd out the traditional heather, bilberry and cowberry.” “It has been doing that through grazing cattle, which eat the vegetation, while in other areas land managers have used machines to cut and mulch the grass, gorse, bracken and heather.” Etymology
From Middle English braken, probably of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin, from Old Norse brakni (“undergrowth”), related to Proto-Germanic brekaną and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). Cognates include Danish bregne and Swedish bräken (“fern”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/bracken