calamus

1. 1.

   any tropical Asian palm of the genus Calamus; light tough stems are a source of rattan canes

   Broaderpalm

   Narrowerrattanlawyer cane

   Part ofgenus Calamus
2. 2.

   the aromatic root of the sweet flag used medicinally

   Broaderroot

   Part ofsweet flag
3. 3.

   perennial marsh plant having swordlike leaves and aromatic roots

   Synonymssweet flagsweet calamusmyrtle flagflagrootAcorus calamus

   Broadermarsh plant

   Part ofAcorus
4. 4.

   a genus of Sparidae

   Synonymsgenus Calamus

   Broaderfish genus

   Part ofSparidae
5. 5.

   the hollow spine of a feather

   Synonymsquillshaft

   Broaderrib

   Part offeather

Other forms of calamus

plural

calami

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about calamus

What does calamus mean?

calamus means "any tropical Asian palm of the genus Calamus; light tough stems are a source of rattan canes". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in calamus?

calamus has 3 syllables: ca-la-mus. The stress falls on "ca".

What is another word for calamus?

Close synonyms include sweet flag, sweet calamus, myrtle flag, flagroot, Acorus calamus. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is calamus a common word?

calamus is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.