Wiktionary

bulb

English

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Flowers growing from a bulb (lower left)

Etymology

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From Middle English bulb, bolbe, from Latin bulbus (“bulb, onion”), from Ancient Greek βολβός (bolbós, “plant with round swelling on underground stem”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bulb (plural bulbs)

  2. The bulb-shaped root portion of a plant such as a tulip, from which the rest of the plant may be regrown.
    • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 265c:
      the plants which grow in the earth from seed or bulbs.
    • 2015 February 7, Val Bourne, “The quiet man of the world of snowdrops”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G8:
      Once it [a snowdrop variety] became established, some bulbs were lifted and passed on to be chipped (i.e. cut into small pieces and grown on).
  3. (dated, neuroanatomy) The medulla oblongata.
  4. Any solid object rounded at one end and tapering on the other, possibly attached to a larger object at the tapered end.
    the bulb of the aorta
    1. A light bulb (not necessarily bulbous in shape).
      an incandescent bulb
      an LED bulb
      a fluorescent tube bulb
  5. (nautical) A bulbous protuberance at the forefoot of certain vessels to reduce turbulence.
  6. (obsolete) An onion.

Derived terms

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Translations

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light bulb — see light bulb
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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bulb (third-person singular simple present bulbs, present participle bulbing, simple past and past participle bulbed)

  1. (intransitive) To take the shape of a bulb; to swell.

References

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  1. ^ Hall, Joseph Sargent (1942 March 2) “3. The Consonants”, in The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 4), New York: King's Crown Press, →DOI, →ISBN, § 2, page 88.

Anagrams

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin bulbus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bulb m (plural bulbs)

  1. (botany) bulb (bulb-shaped root of a plant)

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French bulbe.

Noun

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bulb m (plural bulbi)

  1. bulb

Declension

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Declension of bulb
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) bulb bulbul (niște) bulbi bulbii
genitive/dative (unui) bulb bulbului (unor) bulbi bulbilor
vocative bulbule bulbilor
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