noun

garden

GAH-dn

noun

An outdoor area, often next to a house, where flowers, vegetables, or other plants are grown.

"She spends every Sunday morning weeding the garden."

"They grow tomatoes and herbs in a small garden behind the kitchen."

A public park or landscaped grounds open for people to walk through and enjoy.

"We had a picnic in the botanical gardens downtown."

"The palace gardens are open to visitors every afternoon."

verb

To grow and tend plants, especially as a hobby.

"He gardens most weekends when the weather is good."

"She took up gardening after retiring."

adj

Ordinary or unremarkable, as in the phrase "garden variety."

"It was just a garden variety cold, nothing serious."

How to Use Garden

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishAn area for growing plants, or the act of tending one; also used loosely to mean "plain, ordinary" in "garden variety."

Common mistake

In the UK "garden" usually means the whole plot around a house (what Americans call a "yard"); in US English "yard" is the general term and "garden" is specifically for planted areas.

Easily confused with

yard →

Common pairings

tend a garden garden variety vegetable garden garden party

Word Forms

gardened past tense, gardens plural, Gardens plural, gardens singular

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She spends every Sunday morning weeding the _____.

Etymology

From Old French/Anglo-Norman gardin, ultimately from a Frankish word for a fenced enclosure — the same ancient root that gives English "yard".

Rhymes for garden

Arden warden harden Barden Rearden

See all rhymes for garden →