botanical

botanical — adjective

1. about plants, or about the science that deals with them.

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

about plants, or about the science that deals with them.

Example

Ravi sketched leaves in the botanical garden before the rain began.

botanical garden

The museum opened a botanical show about desert plants from Chile.

botanical + event noun

Common collocations
  • botanical garden
  • botanical drawing
  • botanical name
  • botanical survey
  • botanical research
Synonyms
  • botanic

    very close in meaning, but less common in everyday use

  • plant

    more general and often used in compounds like plant life or plant cell

  • herbal

    focuses more on practical use in medicine, food, or drink

Grammar Patterns

botanical + garden/name/drawing/study

botanical + survey/research

Usage Note

Usually appears before nouns such as garden, drawing, name, survey, and research. Distinguish from noun/1, where botanical names the plant or plant material itself.

Common Mistakes

The soup has a botanical taste.
The soup has an herbal taste.
This adjective usually describes plant study, classification, or plant-related things, not the taste of food.

botanical — noun

Word family

  • botany
    nounC1
  • botanist
    nounC1
  • botanically
    adverbC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

For adjective/1, botanical is the broadest choice when something is connected with plants or with the academic study of them. It often appears in phrases like botanical garden, botanical drawing, and botanical name. Botanic is very similar, but it is rarer in everyday English and is often seen in fixed names. Herbal is narrower: it usually points to plants used in medicine, tea, or cooking, not to plant science in general. Plant-based focuses on what something is made from, especially food or materials, rather than on research or classification. A botanical survey studies plants in an area, but an herbal drink is a drink made with useful or tasty plants.

botanical ↗botanicherbal ↗plant-based

Etymology

GreekLatinFrenchEnglish

The word was formed in English from botany and the ending -al. Botany came into English through French and Latin from Greek botanē, a word used for grass or plants, so botanical has kept its link with plants and the study of them.