Meanings
nounbarrenwort (usually uncountable, plural barrenworts)
plural barrenworts
- uncountableusuallyA herb, Epimedium alpinum, once thought to prevent conception.
“What on earth did you put in that stuff?” “Bug-bane, barren-wort, penny-cress and blood-root, catchfly, toad-flax, nap-weed and wormwood,” said Catweazle.
1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 177
Synonyms & antonyms
nounslow-growing creeping plant with semi-evergreen leaves on erect wiry stems; used as ground cover
Similar
bishop's hatEpimedium grandiflorum
Broader
herbherbaceous plant
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
APA
barrenwort. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barrenwort
MLA
“barrenwort.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barrenwort. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “barrenwort,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/barrenwort.
Source: barrenwort on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.