flora means the goddess of flowers, nature and spring; she is also the wife of Favonius and the mother of Karpos. She is the Roman counterpart of Chloris. It carries an Arena rating of 1561, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, flora ranks #307 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #707 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #980 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #4,225 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
flora is pronounced /ˈflɔːɹə/.
Why “flora” is a great word
The collective plant life of a region, habitat, or geological epoch, taken as a distinct whole. From Latin Flōra, the Roman goddess of flowers, from flōs (genitive flōris) meaning 'flower'. Unlike “fauna” (which denotes the animal life of a place) or “vegetation” (which suggests a general, undifferentiated green covering), flora implies a systematic, taxonomic consideration—a catalogued kingdom. It is the pressed specimens in a botanist's folio, each Latin name a small act of preservation; the specific heather of a high moor; and the fossil imprints of seed ferns in coal measures, their existence known only by absence. To speak of flora is to acknowledge that a meadow is not merely grass but a specific assembly of the living and the lost, the silent, patient kingdom against which all animal drama is played.
Etymology
From Latin Flōra (Roman goddess of flowers).
name
- the goddess of flowers, nature and spring; she is also the wife of Favonius and the mother of Karpos. She is the Roman counterpart of Chloris.
- 8 Flora, a main-belt asteroid.
- A female given name from Latin.e.g.“What lovely names for girls there are! / There's Stella like the Evening Star, / And Sylvia like a rustling tree, / And Lola like a melody, / And Flora like a flowery morn, […]” — 1933, Eleanor Farjeon, “Girls' Names”, in Over the Garden Wall, Faber and Faber, page 91:
- A surname.
- A number of places in the United States:; A former community in Alachua County, Florida, annexed by Gainesville.
- A number of places in the United States:; A city in Clay County, Illinois.
- A number of places in the United States:; A township in Boone County, Illinois.
- A number of places in the United States:; A town in Monroe Township, Carroll County, Indiana; named for founder John Flora.
- A number of places in the United States:; A township in Dickinson County, Kansas.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
- A number of places in the United States:; A township in Renville County, Minnesota.
- A number of places in the United States:; A town in Madison County, Mississippi; named for early resident Flora Mann Jones.
- A number of places in the United States:; A ghost town in Meigs County, Ohio.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Wallowa County, Oregon.
- Other places elsewhere:; A resort in Suriname.
noun
- Plants considered as a group, especially those of a particular country, region, time, etc.e.g.“Thirdly, I continue to attempt to interdigitate the taxa in our flora with taxa of the remainder of the world.” — 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page viii:
- A book describing the plants of a country, region, time, etc.
- The microorganisms that inhabit some part of the body.e.g.“gut flora, intestinal flora”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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