verbena

Borrowed from Latin verbēna (“leaves or twigs of olive, myrtle, laurel, or other sacred plants employed in religious ceremonies”), from Proto-Indo-European *werbʰ-. Doublet of vervain, via French.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /vɚˈbinə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vɜːˈbiːnə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːnə

verbena (countable and uncountable, plural verbenas)

2. Verbena, a genus of herbaceous plants of which several species are extensively cultivated for the great beauty of their flowers; vervain.
   • 1918, Katherine Mansfield, Prelude (Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, 116)

     Linda pulled a piece of verbena and crumpled it, and held her hands to her mother. -

   • 1988, Elizabeth Spencer, “The Legacy”, in On the Gulf (Author and Artist Series), Jackson, Miss.; London: University Press of Mississippi, published 1991, →ISBN, page 49:

     Hidden behind a large stone urn full of verbena, Dottie watched as her enemy greeted Johnny at the door.

• verbena on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• verbena on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:verbena on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

verbena f (plural verbenes)

1. alternative form of berbena

• “verbena” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from Latin verbēna.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋerbenɑ/, [ˈʋe̞rbe̞nɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -erbenɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ver‧be‧na
• Hyphenation^(key): ver‧be‧na

verbena

1. verbena, beebrush (plant of genus Verbena)
2. (in the plural) the genus Verbena

• (plant and genus): rautayrtti

Borrowed from Latin verbēna. Compare the doublet vermena.

• IPA^(key): /verˈbɛ.na/
• Rhymes: -ɛna
• Hyphenation: ver‧bè‧na

verbena f (plural verbene)

1. verbena, vervain

• Verbenacee

By surface analysis, verber +‎ -na. From earlier *werbez-na-, itself formed from the addition of -nus to the s-stem *wer(β/b)-os ~ *wer(β/b)-es- (whence also verber). It is perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *werb^(h)-, whence also perhaps Lithuanian virbas (“twig, branch, scion, rod”).^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [wɛrˈbeː.na]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [verˈbɛː.na]

verbēna f (genitive verbēnae); first declension

1. foliage, especially that of olive, myrtle etc having religious and medicinal uses

First-declension noun.

• “verbena”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “verbena”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “verbena”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “verbena”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “verbena”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

From Old Galician-Portuguese, from Latin verbēna.

• Rhymes: -ẽnɐ, -enɐ
• Hyphenation: ver‧be‧na

verbena f (plural verbenas)

1. (botany) common name, extended to plants of the genus Verbena, of the Verbenaceae family, mostly from the Americas, which includes species cultivated as ornamentals
2. (botany) Verbena officinalis
   1. herbal tea prepared with this plant
3. party with night festival; kermesse

• “verbena”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “verbena”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Inherited from Old Spanish berbena, possibly borrowed from Latin verbēna (see also Lithuanian virbas (“twig, branch, scion, rod”)). Cognate with Middle Dutch warp, Middle Low German warp, German Warf, Danish varp, Swedish varp.

• IPA^(key): /beɾˈbena/ [beɾˈβ̞e.na]
• Rhymes: -ena
• Syllabification: ver‧be‧na

verbena f (plural verbenas)

1. verbena (Verbena, a genus of herbaceous plants of which several species are extensively cultivated for the great beauty of their flowers; vervain)
2. a night-time fair or party

• “verbena”, 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