vegetation

/ˈvɛdʒəˌteɪʃən/

/vɛdʒəˈteɪʃən/

Other forms: vegetations

Use the word vegetation to refer to all plants and trees collectively, typically those in a specific region. The vegetation in your backyard might look very lush and green in the springtime, unless you forget to water it.

Vegetation, as well as meaning all plant growth, can refer to the growth process of a plant. The lettuce you planted a couple weeks ago is at an early stage of vegetation. Vegetation can also apply to people — or at least to those in a state of inactivity. Think about how slowly plants grow. It’s the same for a person who’s in a state of vegetation. You may sometimes enjoy the mindless vegetation of doing nothing at all.

Definitions of vegetation

1. noun

   the process of growth in plants
   type of:

   development, growing, growth, maturation, ontogenesis, ontogeny

   (biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level
2. noun

   all the plant life in a particular region or period
   “Pleistocene vegetation”

   synonyms: botany, flora

   types:

   browse

   vegetation (such as young shoots, twigs, and leaves) that is suitable for animals to eat

   brush, brushwood, coppice, copse, thicket

   a dense growth of bushes

   growth

   vegetation that has grown

   bush, chaparral, scrub

   dense vegetation consisting of stunted trees or bushes

   stand

   a growth of similar plants (usually trees) in a particular area

   forest, wood, woods

   the trees and other plants in a large densely wooded area

   shrubbery

   a collection of shrubs growing together

   garden

   the flowers or vegetables or fruits or herbs that are cultivated in a garden

   brier, brier patch, brierpatch

   tangled mass of prickly plants

   ground cover, groundcover

   low-growing plants planted in deep shade or on a steep slope where turf is difficult to grow

   brake

   an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant

   canebrake

   a dense growth of cane (especially giant cane)

   spinney

   a copse that shelters game

   bosk

   a small wooded area

   grove

   a small growth of trees without underbrush

   jungle

   an impenetrable equatorial forest

   rain forest, rainforest

   a forest with heavy annual rainfall

   underbrush, undergrowth, underwood

   the brush (small trees and bushes and ferns etc.) growing beneath taller trees in a wood or forest

   Hernaria glabra, rupturewort

   common prostrate Old World herb often used as a ground cover; formerly reputed to cure ruptures

   whitlowwort

   any of various low-growing tufted plants of the genus Paronychia having tiny greenish flowers and usually whorled leaves; widespread throughout warm regions of both Old and New Worlds; formerly thought to cure whitlows (suppurative infections around a fingernail)

   pearl-weed, pearlweed, pearlwort

   any of various low-growing plants of the genus Sagina having small spherical flowers resembling pearls

   Helxine soleirolia, Soleirolia soleirolii, baby tears, baby's tears

   prostrate or creeping Corsican herb with moss-like small round short-stemmed leaves

   old growth, virgin forest

   forest or woodland having a mature or overly mature ecosystem more or less uninfluenced by human activity

   second growth

   a second growth of trees covering an area where the original stand was destroyed by fire or cutting

   type of:

   accumulation, aggregation, assemblage, collection

   several things grouped together or considered as a whole
3. noun

   inactivity that is passive and monotonous, comparable to the inactivity of plant life
   “their holiday was spent in sleep and vegetation”

   type of:

   dormancy, quiescence, quiescency, sleeping

   quiet and inactive restfulness
4. noun

   an abnormal growth or excrescence (especially a warty excrescence on the valves of the heart)
   type of:

   excrescence

   (pathology) an abnormal outgrowth or enlargement of some part of the body