bulb

bulb

English

Flowers growing from a bulb (lower left)

Etymology

From Middle English bulb, bolbe, from Latin bulbus (“bulb, onion”), from Ancient Greek βολβός (bolbós, “plant with round swelling on underground stem”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: bŭlb, IPA^(key): /ˈbʌlb/
• (Southern American English, AAVE, obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈbʌb/[1]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌlb

Noun

bulb (plural bulbs)

1. (obsolete) An onion.
2. The bulb-shaped root portion of a plant such as a tulip, from which the rest of the plant may be regrown.
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 265c.

     the plants which grow in the earth from seed or bulbs.

   • 2015 February 7, Val Bourne, “The quiet man of the world of snowdrops”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G8:

     Once it [a snowdrop variety] became established, some bulbs were lifted and passed on to be chipped (i.e. cut into small pieces and grown on).

3. (dated, neuroanatomy) The medulla oblongata.
4. Any solid object rounded at one end and tapering on the other, possibly attached to a larger object at the tapered end.

   the bulb of the aorta

   1. A light bulb (not necessarily bulbous in shape).

      An incandescent bulb; an LED bulb; a fluorescent tube bulb

5. (nautical) A bulbous protuberance at the forefoot of certain vessels to reduce turbulence.

Derived terms

• bus bulb
• dim bulb
• dim-bulb
• dry bulb temperature
• dry-bulb temperature
• Edison bulb
• flashbulb
• hair bulb
• hot bulb
• lamp bulb
• lampbulb
• light bulb
• not the brightest bulb in the chandelier
• tulip bulb
• urethral bulb
• wet-and-dry-bulb hygrometer
• wet-bulb
• wet bulb temperature
• wet-bulb temperature

 

Related terms

• bulbiferous
• bulbil
• bulbous

 

Translations

rounded solid object

Chinese: Mandarin: 泡 (zh) (pāo) Dutch: bol (nl) Finnish: kupu (fi) French: bulbe (fr) m Greek: βολβός (el) m (volvós) Ido: bulbo (io) Luhya: eglopu Malayalam: ബൾബ് (baḷbŭ) Portuguese: bulbo (pt) m Romanian: bulb (ro) m Russian: утолще́ние (ru) n (utolščénije), вы́пуклость (ru) f (výpuklostʹ), ша́рик (ru) m (šárik) Spanish: bulbo (es) m Swahili: glopu (sw)

light bulb — see light bulb

bulb-shaped root

Armenian: սոխուկ (hy) (soxuk), կոճղեզ (hy) (kočłez) Bulgarian: лу́ковица f (lúkovica) Catalan: bulb (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 鱗莖／鳞茎 (zh) (línjīng) Czech: bulva (cs) f, hlíza (cs) f Danish: løg (da) n Finnish: sipuli (fi) French: bulbe (fr) m Galician: bulbo (gl) m Georgian: ბოლქვი (bolkvi) German: Zwiebel (de) f Greek: βολβός (el) m (volvós) Ancient: βολβός m (bolbós) Hebrew: בָּצָל‎ (he) m (batzál) Hungarian: virághagyma (hu) Ido: bulbo (io) Italian: bulbo (it) m Japanese: 球根 (ja) (きゅうこん, kyūkon) Khmer: មើម (km) (məəm) Korean: 알뿌리 (ko) (alppuri) Latin: bulbus m Macedonian: луковица f (lukovica) Malay: bebawang Malayalam: കിഴങ്ങ് (ml) (kiḻaṅṅŭ) Maori: tōpuku Norwegian: Bokmål: løk (no) m Nynorsk: løk m Occitan: bulb m Ottoman Turkish: صوغان‎ (soğan), بصل‎ (basal) Persian: پیاز‎ (fa) (piyâz) Polish: cebulka (pl) f Portuguese: bulbo (pt) m Romanian: bulb (ro) m Russian: лу́ковица (ru) f (lúkovica) Sanskrit: कन्द (sa) m (kanda) Scottish Gaelic: bolgan m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: луковица f, чебуљица f Roman: lukovica (sh) f, čebuljica f Slovak: cibuľka f Slovene: čebulica f Spanish: bulbo (es) m Swedish: lök (sv) c Ukrainian: цибу́лина (uk) f (cybúlyna)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Telugu: (please verify) బల్బు (balbu), (please verify) దీపము (te) (dīpamu), (please verify) బుడ్డి (te) (buḍḍi)

Verb

bulb (third-person singular simple present bulbs, present participle bulbing, simple past and past participle bulbed)

1. (intransitive) To take the shape of a bulb; to swell.

References

1. Hall, Joseph Sargent (March 2, 1942), “3. The Consonants”, in The Phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain Speech (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 4), New York: King's Crown Press, DOI:10.7312/hall93950, →ISBN, § 2, page 88.

Anagrams

• blub

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin bulbus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈbulp/

Noun

bulb m (plural bulbs)

1. (botany) bulb (bulb-shaped root of a plant)

Derived terms

• bulb galàctic
• bulb raquidi

Related terms

• bulbós

Further reading

• “bulb” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

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Romanian

Etymology

From French bulbe.

Noun

bulb m (plural bulbi)

1. bulb

Declension

Declension of bulb

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) bulb	bulbul	(niște) bulbi	bulbii
genitive/dative	(unui) bulb	bulbului	(unor) bulbi	bulbilor
vocative	bulbule		bulbilor