Search Result for "century plant":
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. tropical American plants with basal rosettes of fibrous sword-shaped leaves and flowers in tall spikes; some cultivated for ornament or for fiber;
[syn: agave, century plant, American aloe]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Maguey \Mag"uey\, n. [Sp. maguey, Mexican maguei and metl.] (Bot.) Any of several species of Agave, such as the century plant (Agave Americana), a plant requiring many years to come to maturity and blossoming only once before dying; and the Agave atrovirens, a Mexican plant used especially for making pulque, the source of the colorless Mexican liquor mescal; and the cantala (Agave cantala), a Philippine plant yielding a hard fibre used in making coarse twine. See Agave. [1913 Webster + WordNet 1.5] 2. A hard fibre used in making coarse twine, derived from the Philippine Agave cantala (Agave cantala); also called cantala. [WordNet 1.5]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Century \Cen"tu*ry\, n.; pl. Centuries. [L. centuria (in senses 1 & 3), fr. centum a hundred: cf. F. centurie. See Cent.] 1. A hundred; as, a century of sonnets; an aggregate of a hundred things. [Archaic.] [1913 Webster] And on it said a century of prayers. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 2. A period of a hundred years; as, this event took place over two centuries ago. [1913 Webster] Note: Century, in the reckoning of time, although often used in a general way of any series of hundred consecutive years (as, a century of temperance work), usually signifies a division of the Christian era, consisting of a period of one hundred years ending with the hundredth year from which it is named; as, the first century (a. d. 1-100 inclusive); the seventh century (a.d. 601-700); the eighteenth century (a.d. 1701-1800). With words or phrases connecting it with some other system of chronology it is used of similar division of those eras; as, the first century of Rome (A.U.C. 1-100). [1913 Webster] 3. (Rom. Antiq.) (a) A division of the Roman people formed according to their property, for the purpose of voting for civil officers. (b) One of sixty companies into which a legion of the army was divided. It was Commanded by a centurion. [1913 Webster] Century plant (Bot.), the Agave Americana, formerly supposed to flower but once in a century; -- hence the name. See Agave. The Magdeburg Centuries, an ecclesiastical history of the first thirteen centuries, arranged in thirteen volumes, compiled in the 16th century by Protestant scholars at Magdeburg. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

century plant n 1: tropical American plants with basal rosettes of fibrous sword-shaped leaves and flowers in tall spikes; some cultivated for ornament or for fiber [syn: agave, century plant, American aloe]