mother-in-law's tongue

1. 1.

   stemless plant having narrow rigid leaves often cultivated as a houseplant

   Synonymssnake plantSansevieria trifasciata

   Broadersansevieria
2. 2.

   an evergreen plant with large showy dark green leaves; contains a poison that swells the tongue and throat hence the name

   Synonymsdumb canemother-in-law plantDieffenbachia sequine

   Broaderarum

   Part ofDieffenbachia

Questions about mother-in-law's tongue

What does mother-in-law's tongue mean?

mother-in-law's tongue means "stemless plant having narrow rigid leaves often cultivated as a houseplant". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for mother-in-law's tongue?

Close synonyms include snake plant, Sansevieria trifasciata, dumb cane, mother-in-law plant, Dieffenbachia sequine. 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 mother-in-law's tongue a common word?

mother-in-law's tongue 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.