Definitions

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

  • noun A tropical African plant (Hibiscus sabdariffa) having flowers with yellow petals and a persistent, bright red calyx that has a pleasantly acid flavor and is used to make jelly and beverages.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An East Indian rose-mallow, Hibiscus Sabdariffa, widely cultivated in the tropics, where its pleasantly acidulous calyxes are used for tarts, jellies, etc., and for making a cool refreshing drink.

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

  • noun (Bot.) a malvaceous plant (Hibiscus Sabdariffa) cultivated in the east and West Indies for its fleshy calyxes, which are used for making tarts and jelly and an acid drink.

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

  • noun Hibiscus sabdariffa, an edible flower in the hibiscus family used in Mexican gastronomy to make the infusion agua de jamaica.

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

  • noun East Indian sparsely prickly annual herb or perennial subshrub widely cultivated for its fleshy calyxes used in tarts and jelly and for its bast fiber

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

rose + -elle

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Examples

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  • The plant hibiscus sabdariffa, whose mature deep maroon calyces are used to make a sugary tea variously known as roselle in Thailand, sorrel in Trinidad and the Caribbean, and jamaica in Mexico.

    June 9, 2010