agave

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Ἀγαυή (Agauḗ, “Agave”), from ἀγαυός (agauós, “noble, illustrious”).

• IPA^(key): /əˈɡɑːveɪ/, /əˈɡeɪviː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪvi

agave (plural agaves)

1. Any plant in the large, variable genus Agave of succulent plants, commonly armed with formidable prickles, flowering at maturity after several years, and generally dying thereafter; large species, such as the maguey or century plant, (Agave americana), produce gigantic inflorescences. Several are of economic importance as sources of fibre such as sisal, and alcoholic beverages such as tequila.

   Synonym: century plant

   • 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 22:

     On the mountains a few junipers and piñons are found, and cactuses, agave, and yuccas, low, fleshy plants with bayonets and thorns.

   • 1893 Charles Richards Dodge, A Report on the Leaf Fibers of the United States. Pub: Govt. print. office Washington

     The work of cutting the leaves, even from these isolated plants, was in the nature of an ordeal. Every member of the party took a knife and attacked the thicket, no one escaping the experience of bleeding hands and arms and of more or less injured clothing. If there is any place where strong language is halfway excusable it is in a thicket of 'Agave' decipiens.

   • 1998, Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents, HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP (2019), pages 25–26:

     It was one of the large, vicious varieties of agave, each individual plant an upturned rosette of stiff, fibrous, fleshy leaves, some of them over a meter long on the big parent plants.

Commonly confused with the unrelated genus Aloe, even referred to as "American Aloe".

• Agave on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Agave on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Agave on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• agave at USDA Plants database
• aloe
• maguey

From New Latin Agave, from Ancient Greek Ἀγαυή (Agauḗ), name of one of the daughters of Cadmus, from ἀγαυός (agauós, “noble, illustrious”).

agave c (singular definite agaven, plural indefinite agaver)

1. agave

• “agave” in Den Danske Ordbog

From New Latin Agave, from Ancient Greek Ἀγαυή (Agauḗ), name of one of the daughters of Cadmus, from ἀγαυός (agauós, “noble, illustrious”).

• IPA^(key): /a.ɡav/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

agave m (plural agaves)

1. agave

• “agave”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From New Latin Agave, from Ancient Greek Ἀγαυή (Agauḗ), name of one of the daughters of Cadmus, from ἀγαυός (agauós, “noble, illustrious”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɡa.ve/
• Rhymes: -aɡave
• Hyphenation: à‧ga‧ve

agave f (plural agavi)

1. agave

Borrowed from taxonomic name Agave, from Ancient Greek Ἀγαυή (Agauḗ), name of one of the daughters of Cadmus, from ἀγαυός (agauós, “noble, illustrious”).

• Rhymes: -avi, -avɨ
• Hyphenation: a‧ga‧ve

agave m (plural agaves)

1. (botany) agave (plant of the genus Agave)
2. (botany) American aloe (Agave americana)

   Synonyms: agávea, babosa-brava, pau-pita, piteira

• “agave”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “agave”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “agave”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026
• “agave”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN

Borrowed from translingual Agave, from Ancient Greek Ἀγαυή (Agauḗ), name of one of the daughters of Cadmus, from ἀγαυός (agauós, “noble, illustrious”).

• IPA^(key): /aˈɡabe/ [aˈɣ̞a.β̞e]

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -abe
• Syllabification: a‧ga‧ve

agave m (plural agaves)

1. agave

   Synonym: pita

• maguey
• mezcal

• “agave”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025