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catkin

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: catkins

A catkin is a soft hanging spike of tiny flowers on a spring tree. Hazel catkins.

It is wind-pollinated, which is why it hangs loose and produces so much pollen. A catkin appears before the leaves so nothing blocks the wind.

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of catkin

  1. 1nouncatkinA soft hanging spike of tiny flowers on a spring tree.C2

    “The hazel was covered in catkins by the middle of February.”

catkin is a flower.

Where it comes from

Middle Dutch katteken means little cat, from the resemblance to a kitten's tail.

  1. Middle Dutch

    katteken — catkin

  2. English, today

    catkin

From Middle Dutch katteken (“catkin”) literally “little cat”. So named due to the resemblance of lengthier kinds to a kitten's tail, or, perhaps more probably, the fine fur found on some catkins (compare the pictures). Cognate with German Kätzchen, modern Dutch katje; compare French chaton (“kitten”; “catkin”). by surface analysis, en + cat + kin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Trees & Flowers

Practise this word

catkin in the wild

  • A catkin or ament is a slim, cylindrical flower cluster (a spike), with inconspicuous or no petals, usually wind-pollinated (anemophilous) but sometimes insect-pollinated (as in Salix).

    Catkin

  • Amentotaxus is a genus of conifers (catkin-yews) comprising five species, treated in the Taxaceae.

    Amentotaxus

  • Amentotaxus yunnanensis, the Yunnan catkin yew, is a species of conifer in the yew family, Taxaceae.

    Amentotaxus yunnanensis

  • Grevillea synapheae, commonly known as catkin grevillea, is species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia.

    Grevillea synapheae

  • The inflorescence is a catkin which develops before the plant produces leaves.

    Salix breweri

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.