Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A cluster of flowers arranged in a characteristic way on a stem.
  • noun The process of flowering.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany:
  • noun The portion of a plant devoted to reproduction, including the flowers, peduncles, rachides, general axes, flower-stalks, scapes, etc.
  • noun A beginning to blossom; a flowering; the unfolding of blossoms.
  • noun In botany, the arrangement of flowers on the axis and in relation to each other.
  • noun See the adjectives.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A flowering; the putting forth and unfolding of blossoms.
  • noun The mode of flowering, or the general arrangement and disposition of the flowers with reference to the axis, and to each other.
  • noun An axis on which all the buds are flower buds.
  • noun determinate inflorescence.
  • noun indeterminate inflorescence. See under Determinate, and Indeterminate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun flower cluster
  • noun a beginning to flower

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the time and process of budding and unfolding of blossoms
  • noun the flowering part of a plant or arrangement of flowers on a stalk

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin īnflōrēscentia, from Late Latin īnflōrēscēns, īnflōrēscent-, present participle of īnflōrēscere, to begin to flower : Latin in-, intensive pref.; see in– + Latin flōrēscere, to begin to blossom; see florescence.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin inflorescentia, from inflorescere ("to begin to flower"), inchoative verb of florere ("to flower").

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