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English

 
Flowers growing from a bulb (lower left)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • enPR: bŭlb, IPA(key): /ˈbʌlb/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 494: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "Southern US" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈbʌb/[1]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌlb

Noun

bulb (plural bulbs)

  1. (obsolete) An onion.
  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.

Derived terms

Translations

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

Verb

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

  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

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin bulbus.

Pronunciation

Noun

bulb m (plural bulbs)

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

Derived terms

Further reading

Romanian

Etymology

From French bulbe.

Noun

bulb m (plural bulbi)

  1. bulb

Declension

singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative bulb bulbul bulbi bulbii
genitive-dative bulb bulbului bulbi bulbilor
vocative bulbule bulbilor