- any of numerous plants of the genera Cirsium,Carduus, and related genera, having prickly-edged leaves, pink, purple, yellow, or white dense flower heads, and feathery hairs on the seeds: family Asteraceae (composites)
- a thistle, or a representation of one, as the national emblem of Scotland
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
this•tle /ˈθɪsəl/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Plant Biologya prickly plant usually having purple flower heads.
this•tle
(this′əl),USA pronunciation n.
this′tle•like′, adj.
- Plant Biologyany of various prickly, composite plants having showy, purple flower heads, esp. of the genera Cirsium, Carduus, or Onopordum.
- Plant Biologyany of various other prickly plants.
- bef. 900; Middle English thistel, Old English; cognate with Dutch distel, German Distel, Old Norse thistill
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
thistle /ˈθɪsəl/ n
'thistle' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
artichoke
- card
- cardoon
- chard
- composite
- hardheads
- knapweed
- MacDiarmid
- pappus
- safflower
- silymarin
- sow thistle
- thistledown
- blue thistle
- blueweed
- bull thistle
- caltrop
- Canada thistle
- cardueline
- ceanothus
- composite family
- cotton thistle
- distelfink
- down
- globe thistle
- golden thistle
- goosefoot family
- holy thistle
- Kt
- lady's-thistle
- milk thistle
- musk thistle
- Russian thistle
- thistle butterfly
- thistle tube
- thistly
- tumbleweed
- Scotch thistle
- Spanish oyster plant