winter cherry

1. 1.

   Old World perennial cultivated for its ornamental inflated papery orange-red calyx

   SynonymsChinese lantern plantbladder cherryPhysalis alkekengi

   Broaderground cherry
2. 2.

   small South American shrub cultivated as a houseplant for its abundant ornamental but poisonous red or yellow cherry-sized fruit

   SynonymsJerusalem cherryMadeira winter cherrySolanum pseudocapsicum

   Broadernightshade

Questions about winter cherry

What does winter cherry mean?

winter cherry means "Old World perennial cultivated for its ornamental inflated papery orange-red calyx". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for winter cherry?

Close synonyms include Chinese lantern plant, bladder cherry, Physalis alkekengi, Jerusalem cherry, Madeira winter cherry. 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 winter cherry a common word?

winter cherry 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.