trefoil

1. 1.

   any of several Old World herbs of the genus Medicago having small flowers and trifoliate compound leaves

   Synonymsmedicmedick

   Broaderherb

   Narrowermoon trefoilsickle alfalfaCalvary cloverblack medickalfalfa

   Part ofMedicago
2. 2.

   a plant of the genus Trifolium

   Synonymsclover

   Broaderherb

   Narroweralpine cloverhop clovercrimson cloverred cloverbuffalo cloverwhite clover

   Part ofTrifolium
3. 3.

   an architectural ornament in the form of three arcs arranged in a circle

   Broaderarchitectural ornament

Other forms of trefoil

plural

trefoils·

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 trefoil

What does trefoil mean?

trefoil means "any of several Old World herbs of the genus Medicago having small flowers and trifoliate compound leaves". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in trefoil?

trefoil has 2 syllables: tre-foil. The stress falls on "tre".

What is another word for trefoil?

Close synonyms include medic, medick, clover. 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 trefoil a common word?

trefoil 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.