Definitions

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

  • noun A North American annual plant (Coreopsis tinctoria) in the composite family, widely cultivated for its showy flower heads with yellow rays and purple-red to brownish centers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A former genus name of a group of plants of the family Asteraceæ, now referred to Coreopsis.
  • noun [lowercase] A popular name of various cultivated species of Coreopsis, especially C. tinctoria (Calliopsis marmorata of florists) and C. lanceolata.

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

  • noun (Bot.) A popular name given to a few species of the genus Coreopsis, especially to Coreopsis tinctoria of Arkansas.

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

  • noun North American annual widely cultivated for its yellow flowers with purple-red to brownish centers; in some classifications placed in a subgenus Calliopsis

Etymologies

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

[New Latin : Greek kalli-, beautiful (from kallos, beauty) + Greek opsis, appearance; see –opsis.]

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Examples

  • California poppies for oranges and yellows; sweet sultans for purples, whites, and pale yellows; petunias for purples, violets, and whites; larkspurs for blues and violets; bachelor's buttons (or cornflowers) for blues; calliopsis and coreopsis and calendulas for yellows; gaillardias for red-yellows and orange-reds; China asters for many colors.

    Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) 1906

  • "Mother always says that gay flowers are the city person's greatest help in brightening up a dark room," said Della as she laid aside all the calliopsis from the flowers she was sorting.

    Ethel Morton's Enterprise 1903

  • And we had banks of calliopsis and sunflowers -- the small sunflowers of Kansas, that bloom a hundred or more to a stalk -- and tall phlox whose fragrance carries one back to some far, forgotten childhood.

    Dwellers in Arcady The Story of an Abandoned Farm Albert Bigelow Paine 1899

  • Away at one end were the beds of old-fashioned flowers: hollyhocks and phlox and stocks, coreopsis and calliopsis, calendula and campanula, fox-gloves and monks-hoods and lady-slippers.

    Days Off And Other Digressions Henry Van Dyke 1892

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