ˈfərn, ˈfə̄n, ˈfəin noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English fern, ferne, from Old English fearn; akin to Old High German farn fern, Middle Irish raith fern, Sanskrit parṇa wing, feather, leaf, and perhaps to Old English faran to travel — more at fare
1.
a. : any of numerous nonflowering vascular plants constituting a class (Filicineae) of the division Tracheophyta ; especially : a plant of the order Filicales resembling seed plants in being differentiated into root, stem, and leaflike fronds and in having vascular tissue but differing in reproducing by spores that are borne usually in sori on fertile fronds or fertile portions of vegetative fronds and that upon germination commonly produce a flat typical thallus which produces antheridia and archegonia upon its surface, the egg of the archegonium giving rise to the sporophyte which is the conspicuous generation in the life cycle — see frond illustration
b. : a frond of a fern
c. : a growth or quantity of ferns
admiring the fern of the park
decorated with white roses banked with fern
2. : any of various plants with fernlike foliage — usually used in combination
asparagus fern
sweet fern