any plant of the genus Phlox, of North America, certain species of which are cultivated for their showy flowers of various colors. Compare phlox family.
2.
the flower of this plant.
Origin: 1595–1605; < ML, special use of L phlox < Gk phlóx a flame-colored plant, lit., flame.See phlegm, phlogistic
phlox (flŏks) n.
pl.phlox or phlox·es Any of various North American plants of the genus Phlox, having opposite leaves and flowers with a variously colored salverform corolla.
[Latin, a kind of flame-colored flower, from Greek, flame, wallflower; see bhel-1 in Indo-European roots.]
1706, from L., where it was the name of a flower (Pliny), from Gk. phlox "kind of plant with showy flowers" (probably Silene vulgaris), lit. "flame," related to phlegein "to burn," phlegma "inflammation" (see phlegm). Applied to the N.Amer. flowering plant by Ger. botanist Johann Jakob Dillenius (1684-1747).