Definitions

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

  • adjective Of, belonging to, or characteristic of plants in the pea family, which includes peas, beans, clover, and alfalfa.
  • adjective Resembling a legume.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to pulse; consisting of pulse.
  • In botany, bearing legumes as seed-vessels; pertaining to plants which bear legumes, as peas; specifically, of or pertaining to the Leguminosæ. Also leguminose.

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

  • adjective Pertaining to pulse; consisting of pulse.
  • adjective (Bot.) Belonging to, or resembling, a very large natural order of plants (Leguminosæ), which bear legumes, including peas, beans, clover, locust trees, acacias, and mimosas.

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

  • adjective of the Leguminosae family of peas, beans etc
  • adjective resembling a legume

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

  • adjective relating to or consisting of legumes

Etymologies

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

[From Middle English and from French légumineux, both from Latin legūminōsus, from legūmen, legūmin-, bean.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word leguminous.

Examples

  • Zero-burn techniques in which the felled forest biomass is broken down under a short term leguminous cover crop followed by moderate applications of lime and P fertilizer show considerable promise.

    1. Soil constraints on sustainable plant production in the tropics. 1992

  • Remember also that some trees, called leguminous trees, such as Prosopis, Faidherbia and Leucaena can take nitrogen from the air and turn it into nitrogen that the tree can use to grow, so you may not need to fertilize the tree with nitrogen.

    Chapter 7 1994

  • Also, some trees, known as leguminous trees, improve the soil by fixing nitrogen from the air, making it available to livestock.

    Chapter 3 1994

  • It may be generally recommended as a manure for all crops, except, perhaps, the so-called leguminous crops, such as clover, beans, peas, &c, whose ability to obtain nitrogen for themselves renders the application of expensive artificial nitrogenous manures unadvisable.

    Manures and the principles of manuring Charles Morton Aikman

  • The primary forest is composed of many species of leguminous trees including Burkea africana, Detarium microcarpum, Afzelia africana, Daniellia oliveri, and Isoberlinia doka.

    Comoé National Park, Côte d'Ivoire 2009

  • You can very well get enough proteins by eating nuts, seeds and oils with your vegetables as well as leguminous plants.

    Veggie Guts | My[confined]Space 2009

  • I am working on a leguminous recipe for you and will blog it up soon.

    Recipes: Split Pea Soup with Ham Hocks & Garlic Yogurt Laurie Constantino 2009

  • Zollernia paraensis, a leguminous tree, Theobroma grandiflorum, a fruit similar to cacao called cupuaçu, and Cordia goeldiana, a common timber tree, are all well-known in eastern Pará.

    Tapajós-Xingu moist forests 2008

  • The important leguminous timber tree acapú, Vouacapoua americana, is restricted to eastern Amazonia north and south of the river.

    Tocantins-Araguaia-Maranhão moist forests 2008

  • There is a gradation from north to south, with the southern third of the park being the moistest and richest area, especially of leguminous trees.

    Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.