fleur-de-lis

1. 1.

   plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals

   Synonymsirisflagsword lily

   Broaderiridaceous plant

   Narrowerbearded irisbeardless irisbulbous irisdwarf irisstinking irisPersian irisyellow irisblue flagsouthern blue flagEnglish iris

   Part ofgenus Iris
2. 2.

   (heraldry) charge consisting of a conventionalized representation of an iris

   Synonymsfleur-de-lys

   Broadercharge

   heraldry

Questions about fleur-de-lis

What does fleur-de-lis mean?

fleur-de-lis means "plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in fleur-de-lis?

fleur-de-lis has 4 syllables: fle-ur--de--lis. The stress falls on "ur-".

What is another word for fleur-de-lis?

Close synonyms include iris, flag, sword lily, fleur-de-lys. 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 fleur-de-lis a common word?

fleur-de-lis 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.