greens

G2R1E1E1N1S1
/ɡɹiːnz/

noun

Leaves and leaf-like parts of edible plants when eaten as vegetables or in salads.

“salad greens”

Similar
Green Party in various other contextsgreenleafy vegetable
CommonScrabble 7

Meanings

greens1

noungreens pl (plural only)
  1. pluralplural onlyLeaves and leaf-like parts of edible plants when eaten as vegetables or in salads.

    salad greens

    5 more examples

    collard greens

    If you're a beginning gardener and have never grown a vegetable in your life before, try greens. You'll find no easier group of vegetables to grow than greens.

    2009, Charlie Nardozzi, Vegetable Gardening For Dummies, →ISBN, page 137

    Collard Greens are my favorite greens!

    2011, Lorraine Grant, Everyday Comfort Foods with Family and Friends, page 52

    Throughout the winter and spring, a variety of little greens shoot up that are the staples of a harvested salad.

    2017, Mia Wasilevich, Ugly Little Greens: Gourmet Dishes Crafted From Foraged Ingredients, →ISBN

    So, here's the deal: greens should be an essential part of every meal. And by greens I mean leafy greens, leaves on plants (such as tomato leaves), and herbs.

    2017, Jenn Louis, Kathleen Squires, The Book of Greens: A Cook's Compendium, →ISBN, page 2
  2. pluralplural onlyGreen vegetables; edible plants or plant parts that contain chlorophyll.

    starches, meats, and greens

    4 more examples

    Greens are the most basic and prevalent life form on the planet. In the waters, the greens are represented in large and microscopic plant life such as phytoplankton, which grow abundantly in oceans around the world and are the foundation of the marine food chain. On land, the greens can be represented in many green plants and tree foliage with access to sunlight and water. They all contain the pigment chlorophyll for photosynthesis.

    2006, Ron Carter, Just Soul Food II-Greens/Holy Spirit's Love-Christ's Cross, →ISBN, page 102

    Seaweed is delicious, and now that you've fallen in love with these ocean greens, you likely can't wait to polish off multiple bowlfuls each day.

    2016, Lisette Kreischer, Marcel Schuttelaar, Ocean Greens: Explore the World of Edible Seaweed and Sea Vegetables., →ISBN

    91% of Americans don't eat the recommended daily intake of green vegetables. This is a combination of the challenge of time, budget and the perception most of us picked up as kids that greens don't taste good.

    2017, Dawn Russell, The 8Greens Cookbook: The Simple Way to Get Your Greens, →ISBN

    We know we should eat more greens, but we so easily get stuck in a rut and just steam some broccoli or green beans, time and time again

    2017, Zita Steyn, Eat More Greens: The Most Inventive Recipes to Help You Eat More Greens, →ISBN
  3. pluralplural onlyLeafy plants that are used for decoration.

    Yuletide greens

    3 more examples

    Tip greens - the new growth at the ends of branches - are often harvested either for the wholesale or retail market, or for one's own processing.

    1989, Lewis Hill, Christmas Trees: Growing and Selling Trees, Wreaths, and Greens, →ISBN

    In phase II, we carried out the field portion of the study during two consecutive weeks in April 2002, a time that coincided with the end of the spring floral greens havesting season for that year.

    2003, Kathryn A. Lynch, Rebecca J. McLain, Access, Labor, and Wild Floral Greens Management in Western Washington's Forests, →ISBN, page 10

    "We're going for Christmas greens and Dad's going to cut our tree from away up on the hillside," Toad told him, "and," he added, "we're going to take one of the horses with us to drag it home.

    2007, Alice Hale Burnett, Christmas Holidays at Merryvale: The Merryvale Boys, →ISBN
  4. pluralplural onlygovernmentThe green dress uniform of the United States Marine Corps.

    Some years ago, moths ruined my greens, and my son, a career Army man, sensed my loss.

    1991, The Leatherneck, volume 74
noun
  1. pluralplural of green

greens2

verb
  1. indicativepresentsingularthird personthird-person singular simple present indicative of green

Greens3

noun
  1. pluralplural of Green
proper noun
  1. pluralplural of Green
  2. AustraliangovernmentThe Australian Greens, a left-wing, progressive green party in Australia
  3. informalSynonym of Green Party in various other contexts.

    Synonyms: Green Party in various other contexts

    1. historicalinformalThe chariot-racing faction of the Roman circus and Constantinopolitan hippodrome that wore green.
      1 more example

      'Constantinople adopted the follies, though not the virtues of ancient Rome,' wrote Edward Gibbon, 'and the same factions which had agitated the circus raged with redoubled fury in the Hippodrome.' Gibbon's judgment was that what produced the 'redoubled fury' in the Hippodrome was senseless hooliganism, and even though the Blues and Greens could be politicized upon occasion, they had no coherent aims, religious or political. Gibbon's successors had alternative suggestions, the most persistent of which has been that the Blues were supporters of religious orthodoxy and the Greens of Monophysitism.

      2002, James Allan Stewart Evans, The Age of Justinian..., p. 38

Synonyms & antonyms

proper nounSynonym of Green Party in various other contexts.

Similar
Green Party in various other contexts

More synonyms by meaning

nounany of various leafy plants or their leaves and stems eaten as vegetables

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

greens · noun, noun

  1. Middle Englishgrenes
  2. Englishgreens

From Middle English grenes, equivalent to green + -s. Compare Saterland Frisian Gräinieten (“vegetable”), West Frisian grienten (“vegetables, greens”), Dutch groenten (“vegetables, greens”), German Low German Gröönten (“vegetables, greens”), Danish grøntsager (“vegetables”), Swedish grönsaker (“vegetables”).

Full word history & related roots →

greens · verb

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Full word history & related roots →

Greens · noun, proper noun

  1. Medieval GreekΠράσινοι“Leek-Greens”
  2. Latinprasinī“Leek-Greens”
  3. EnglishGreens

In reference to the ancient Roman and medieval Byzantine racing faction, a calque of Latin prasinī (“Leek-Greens”) or factio prasina (“the leek-green faction”) and Medieval Greek Πράσινοι (Prásinoi, “Leek-Greens”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans groente
  • groenteleaves of certain edible green plants
Chinese Mandarin 菜, 青菜
  • 菜 (cài)leaves of certain edible green plants
  • 青菜 (qīngcài)leaves of certain edible green plants
Dutch groenten, bladgroente
  • groentenleaves of certain edible green plants
  • bladgroenteleaves of certain edible green plants
  • groentenany vegetable eaten by humans, regardless of colour
Esperanto legomoj
  • legomojleaves of certain edible green plants
Finnish lehtivihannekset, vihannekset
  • lehtivihanneksetleaves of certain edible green plants
  • vihanneksetleaves of certain edible green plants
French légumes verts
  • légumes vertsleaves of certain edible green plants
German Blattgemüse
  • Blattgemüseleaves of certain edible green plants
Greek λαχανικά, χόρτα
  • λαχανικά (lachaniká)leaves of certain edible green plants
  • χόρτα (chórta)leaves of certain edible green plants
  • λαχανικά (lachaniká)any vegetable eaten by humans, regardless of colour
Italian verdura, erbe
  • verduraleaves of certain edible green plants
  • erbeleaves of certain edible green plants
  • cimeleaves of certain edible green plants
  • erbaggileaves of certain edible green plants
Japanese 菜, 菜っ葉
  • 菜 (na)leaves of certain edible green plants
  • 菜っ葉 (nappa)leaves of certain edible green plants
Korean 푸성귀
  • 푸성귀 (puseonggwi)leaves of certain edible green plants
Latin holus
  • holusany vegetable eaten by humans, regardless of colour
Māori korare
  • korareleaves of certain edible green plants
Norwegian Bokmål bladsalat, grønt
  • bladsalatleaves of certain edible green plants
  • grøntleaves of certain edible green plants
  • bladgrøntleaves of certain edible green plants
Polish zielenina
  • zieleninaleaves of certain edible green plants
Portuguese verdura
  • verduraleaves of certain edible green plants
Russian зе́лень, о́вощи
  • зе́лень (zélenʹ)leaves of certain edible green plants
  • о́вощи (óvošči)any vegetable eaten by humans, regardless of colour
Spanish verduras
  • verdurasleaves of certain edible green plants
Swedish grönt uncountable, gröna
  • grönt uncountableleaves of certain edible green plants
  • grönaleaves of certain edible green plants
  • grönsakerleaves of certain edible green plants
Tamil கீரை, கீரை
  • கீரை (kīrai)leaves of certain edible green plants
  • கீரை (kīrai)any vegetable eaten by humans, regardless of colour
Turkish yeşillik, yeşillik
  • yeşillikleaves of certain edible green plants
  • yeşillikany vegetable eaten by humans, regardless of colour
Ukrainian зе́лень, зелени́на
  • зе́лень (zélenʹ)leaves of certain edible green plants
  • зелени́на (zelenýna)leaves of certain edible green plants
Vietnamese rau
  • rauleaves of certain edible green plants

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with greens

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

greens. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greens

MLA

“greens.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greens. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “greens,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greens.

Source: greens on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.