noun ·same·as nepenthe.
2. nepenthes ·noun a genus of climbing plants found in india, malaya, ·etc., which have the leaves prolonged into a kind of stout tendril terminating in a pitcherlike appendage, whence the plants are often called pitcher plants and monkey-cups. there are about thirty species, of which the best known is nepenthes distillatoria. ·see pitcher plant.