Other forms: blossoms, blossomed, blossoming
Blossom is the mass of flowers that covers fruit trees in spring. Cherry blossom, apple blossom, the trees are in blossom.
It is usually uncountable and used of trees rather than of single flowers: a tree is in blossom, and the flowers together are the blossom. Cherry blossom is the most famous, and the Japanese practice of hanami is built round the few days it lasts. As a verb, to blossom means to develop beautifully: she blossomed in the new school. Note bloom, which is the near equivalent and is used of flowers generally.
1nounblossomThe flowers that cover a fruit tree in spring.
“The blossom lasted about ten days and then the wind came.”
synonyms: bloom
2verbdevelopTo develop well and beautifully.
“She blossomed in her second year.”
blossom is flowers on a tree.
Also accepted in games: bloom
Old English blostm comes from a Germanic root meaning to bloom, related to Latin flos, a flower — the source of floral and flourish. Blossom, bloom, blow in the old sense of flowering, and flower are all one distant family.
Proto-Germanic
*blōstmô
Old English
blostm
Middle English
blosme
English, today
blossom
From Middle English blosme, from Old English blostm, blostma, from Proto-Germanic blōstmô (compare West Frisian blossem, Dutch bloesem; related to blōstaz [compare German Blust]), from Proto-Indo-European bʰleh₃-s- (“bloom, flower”), from bʰleh₃- (“to bloom, to thrive”). Cognate with Albanian bleron (“to blossom, to thrive”), Latin flōs (“flower”), Flōra (“goddess of plants”). See more at blow#Etymology_4 (etymology 4).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA