tumbleweed

1. 1.

   any plant that breaks away from its roots in autumn and is driven by the wind as a light rolling mass

   Broaderweed
2. 2.

   prickly bushy Eurasian plant; a troublesome weed in central and western United States

   SynonymsRussian thistleRussian tumbleweedRussian cactusSalsola kali tenuifolia

   Broadershrub
3. 3.

   bushy annual weed of central North America having greenish flowers and winged seeds

   Synonymswinged pigweedCycloloma atriplicifolium

   Broadershrub

   Part ofCycloloma
4. 4.

   bushy plant of western United States

   SynonymsAmaranthus albusAmaranthus graecizans

   Broaderamaranth

Other forms of tumbleweed

plural

tumbleweeds·

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 tumbleweed

What does tumbleweed mean?

tumbleweed means "any plant that breaks away from its roots in autumn and is driven by the wind as a light rolling mass". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in tumbleweed?

tumbleweed has 3 syllables: tum-ble-weed. The stress falls on "tum".

What is another word for tumbleweed?

Close synonyms include Russian thistle, Russian tumbleweed, Russian cactus, Salsola kali tenuifolia, winged pigweed. 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 tumbleweed a common word?

tumbleweed is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.