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fern 
Audio Help [furn] Pronunciation Key
—Related forms
Audio Help [furn] Pronunciation Key –noun
| any seedless, nonflowering vascular plant of the class Filicinae, of tropical to temperate regions, characterized by true roots produced from a rhizome, triangular fronds that uncoil upward and have a branching vein system, and reproduction by spores contained in sporangia that appear as brown dots on the underside of the fronds. |
[Origin: bef. 900; ME ferne, OE fearn; c. G Farn fern, Skt parná feather]
] —Related forms
fernless, adjective
fernlike, adjective
| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
Fern
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| © 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
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| Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
| fern
Audio Help (fûrn) Pronunciation Key
n. Any of numerous flowerless, seedless vascular plants having roots, stems, and fronds and reproducing by spores. [Middle English, from Old English fearn; see per-2 in Indo-European roots.] fern'y adj. |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
fern
O.E. fearn, from P.Gmc. *farnan (cf. M.Du. varn, Ger. Farn), from PIE *porno-, a root which has yielded words for "feather, wing" (cf. Skt. parnam "feather;" Lith. papartis "fern;" Russ. paporot; Gk. pteris "fern," pteron "feather"), from base *per- (see petition). Applied to the plant perhaps from the feather-like appearance of the fronds. The plant's ability to appear as if from nothing accounts for the ancient belief that fern seeds conferred invisibility.
| Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper |
| fern | |
noun | |
| any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
fern [fəːn] noun
a kind of plant with no flowers and delicate feather-like leaves
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| Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd. |
| fern
Audio Help (fûrn) Pronunciation Key
Any of numerous seedless vascular plants belonging to the phylum Pterophyta that reproduce by means of spores and usually have feathery fronds divided into many leaflets. Most species of ferns are homosporous (producing only one kind of spore). The haploid spore grows into a small, usually flat gametophyte known as a prothallus, which is undifferentiated into roots, stems, and leaves. The green prothallus anchors itself with hairlike extensions known as rhizoids and bears both archegonia (organs producing female gametes) and antheridia (organs producing male gametes). The male gametes require the presence of water to swim to the female gametes and fertilize the eggs. Normally only one embryo is produced, and it then grows out of the gametophyte plant as a diploid sporophyte plant that has roots, stems, and leaves and conducts photosynthesis, while the smaller gametophyte withers away. The leaves of these sporophytes eventually produce sporangia (in some species occurring in clusters known as sori). Under dry conditions, the sori burst releasing hundreds of thousands or millions of spores. Ferns were abundant in the Carboniferous period and exist today in about 11,000 species, about three-quarters of which live in tropical climates. |
| The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
Fern Creek, KY (CDP, FIPS 27046) Location: 38.15830 N, 85.59667 W
Population (1990): 16406 (5996 housing units)
Area: 15.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 40291
Fern Park, FL (CDP, FIPS 22250) Location: 28.64820 N, 81.34581 W
Population (1990): 8294 (3706 housing units)
Area: 5.5 sq km (land), 0.8 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 32730
| U.S. Gazetteer, U.S. Census Bureau |
Fern
Climb"ing\, p. pr. & vb. n. of Climb. Climbing fern. See under Fern. Climbing perch. (Zo["o]l.) See Anabas, and Labyrinthici.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
Fern
Fern\, adv. Long ago. [Obs.] --Chaucer.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
Fern
Fern\, a. [AS. fyrn.] Ancient; old. [Obs.] "Pilgrimages to . . . ferne halwes." [saints]. --Chaucer.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
FERN
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