edelweiss means A European perennial alpine plant (Leontopodium alpinum), with downy leaves and small white flower heads in a dense cluster.
edelweiss is pronounced /ˈeɪdəlvaɪs/.
Why “edelweiss” is a great word
A European perennial alpine plant with woolly, greyish leaves and a dense, star-like cluster of small white flower heads. From German *Edelweiß*, from *edel* ('noble') + *weiß* ('white'), first attested in English in 1862. Unlike the vivid blue gentian or the tenacious, rock-splitting saxifrage, the edelweiss is an emblem—of Alpine purity, rugged inaccessibility, and national romanticism. It is the soft, felted star on a sheer limestone face, the dried token in a soldier’s diary, the solitary white badge against a vast, indifferent scree—a nobility earned in the thin, perilous air just below the snow, a fragile cipher for everything we dare not say aloud about devotion, risk, and the beauty we climb mountains to find.
Etymology
Borrowed from German Edelweiß, from edel (“noble”) + weiß (“white”).
noun
- A European perennial alpine plant (Leontopodium alpinum), with downy leaves and small white flower heads in a dense cluster.“And that will mean farewell to the edelweiss, adieu the eider goose.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- daisy 81% match — A wild flowering plant of species Bellis perennis of the family Asteraceae, with a yellow head and white petals vs edelweiss →
- saxifrage 81% match — Any plant in the genus Saxifraga. vs edelweiss →
- chrysanthemum 81% match — Any of many flowering perennial plants, of the genus Chrysanthemum, native to China, that have showy radiate heads. vs edelweiss →
- shamrock 79% match — The trefoil leaf of any small clover, especially Trifolium repens, or such a leaf from a clover-like plant, commonly used as a symbol of Ireland. vs edelweiss →
- blowball 78% match — The downy seedhead of a dandelion, a dandelion clock. vs edelweiss →
- wildflower 78% match — A wild (uncultivated) flowering plant. vs edelweiss →
- alpenstock 78% match — A stout adjustable walking stick with a metal point, used by mountain climbers and walkers in hilly or uneven terrain. vs edelweiss →
- meadowsweet 77% match — A Eurasian perennial flowering plant of Rosaceae family, Filipendula ulmaria. vs edelweiss →