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''carnation'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125123911-00-⌔

carnation - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

carnation (countable and uncountable, plural carnations)

  • (botany) A type of Eurasian plant widely cultivated for its flowers.
    • originally, Dianthus caryophyllus
    • other members of genus Dianthus and hybrids
  • The type of flower they bear, originally flesh-coloured, but since hybridizing found in a variety of colours.
  • A rosy pink colour
    • ✤ carnation:
    • ✤ And the women of New Bedford, they bloom like their own red roses. But roses only bloom in summer; whereas the fine carnation of their cheeks is perennial as sunlight in the seventh heavens.1
  • (archaic, now especially heraldry) The pinkish colors used in art to render human face and flesh
    • ✤ carnation:
  • A scarlet colour.

Adjective

carnation (not comparable)

  • Of a rosy pink or red colour.
  • (archaic) Of a human flesh color.

Etymology

From Middle French carnation (“flesh color, complexion”), either via Italian carnagione (“flesh color”) or directly from Late Latin carnātiō (“fleshiness”), from Latin carō (“flesh, meat”) + ātiō (“-ation”). As a flower and its color, possibly instead from corruption in French of coronation (“crowning, crowned thing”) under the influence of carnation, from the flower’s supposed resemblance to a crown. By surface analysis, Latin carn- +‎ -ate +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /kɑːˈneɪ.ʃən/
  • (US) IPA: /kɑɹˈneɪ.ʃən/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 6: ↩

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