Definitions

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

  • noun A horizontal, usually underground stem that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, a stem of root-like appearance, horizontal or oblique in position, lying on the ground or subterranean, bearing scales instead of leaves, and usually producing from its apex a leafy shoot or scape.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A rootstock. See rootstock.

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

  • noun A horizontal underground stem of some plants that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes.
  • noun philosophy A so-called "image of thought" that apprehends multiplicities. See Rhizome (philosophy).

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

  • noun a horizontal plant stem with shoots above and roots below serving as a reproductive structure

Etymologies

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

[Greek rhizōma, mass of roots, from rhizoun, to cause to take root, from rhiza, root; see wrād- in Indo-European roots.]

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