iris

1. 1.

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

   Synonymsflagfleur-de-lissword lily

   Broaderiridaceous plant

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

   Part ofgenus Iris
2. 2.

   muscular diaphragm that controls the size of the pupil which in turn controls the amount of light that enters the eye; it forms the colored portion of the eye

   Broadermembrane

   Part ofeye

   Partspupil
3. 3.

   diaphragm consisting of thin overlapping plates that can be adjusted to change the diameter of a central opening

   Synonymsiris diaphragm

   Broaderdiaphragm

Other forms of iris

plural

irides

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 iris

What does iris mean?

iris 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 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in iris?

iris has 2 syllables: i-ris. The stress falls on "i". In IPA it is /ˈaɪɹəs/.

What is another word for iris?

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

iris is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.