palmyra

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Pal·my·ra

(păl-mī′rə)

1. An ancient city of central Syria northeast of Damascus. Said to have been built by Solomon, it prospered under the Romans until it was partially destroyed by the emperor Aurelian after a people's revolt in ad 273.

2. A city of western New York southeast of Rochester on the Erie Canal. Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church here in 1830.

pal·my·ra

(păl-mī′rə)

Any of several tall fan-leaved palm trees of the genus Borassus, especially B. flabellifer of tropical Asia, valued for its sweet sap. Also called palmyra palm.

[Alteration (influenced by Palmyra) of Portuguese palmeira, from palma, palm tree, from Latin; see palm².]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Palmyra

(pælˈmaɪrə)

1. (Placename) an ancient city in central Syria: said to have been built by Solomon. Biblical name: Tadmor

2. (Placename) an island in the central Pacific, in the Line Islands: under US administration

palmyra

(pælˈmaɪrə)

(Plants) a tall tropical Asian palm, Borassus flabellifer, with large fan-shaped leaves used for thatching and weaving; grown also for its edible seedlings

[C17: from Portuguese palmeira palm tree (see palm²); perhaps influenced by Palmyra, city in Syria]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Pal•my•ra

(pælˈmaɪ rə)

n.

an ancient city in central Syria, NE of Damascus: reputedly built by Solomon. Biblical name, Tadmor.

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Noun

palmyra - tall fan palm of Africa and India and Malaysia yielding a hard wood and sweet sap that is a source of palm wine and sugar; leaves used for thatching and weaving

Borassus flabellifer, longar palm, lontar, palmyra palm, toddy palm, wine palm

fan palm - palm having palmate or fan-shaped leaves

Borassus, genus Borassus - palmyra

bassine - coarse leaf fiber from palmyra palms used in making brushes and brooms

References in classic literature ?

Various water-courses filter through, toward the east, and work their way onward to flow into the Kingani, in the midst of gigantic clumps of sycamore, tamarind, calabash, and palmyra trees.

View in context

The spectator is apt to imagine that nature had formerly suffered some violent convulsion; and that these are the dismembered remains of the dreadful shock; the ruins, not of Persepolis or Palmyra, but of the world!

View in context

"We are of those who believe in those sacred writings, drawn in Egyptian letters on plates of beaten gold, which were handed unto the holy Joseph Smith at Palmyra. We have come from Nauvoo, in the State of Illinois, where we had founded our temple.