Annuus

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Characterized by a life cycle lasting a year, particularly in botany, where plants bloom and die within one growing season
2. Pertaining to species that complete their entire growth process from germination to the production of seeds in one year
3. Describing flora or fauna that undergoes their life stages within a single annual cycle, completing their reproductive phase within that timeframe

Etymology: "Annuus" is the Latin adjective meaning "yearly" or "lasting a year," formed from "annus" ("year") with the adjective suffix "-uus." It is a standard Latin word, and its English descendants include "annual," which came into English in the late 1300s or early 1400s through Old French "annuel" and Latin "annualis." The word's real life is in botany. Linnaeus and later taxonomists used "annuus" as a specific epithet to mark plants that complete their life cycle in one growing season, which is why you find it in names like "Helianthus annuus," the common sunflower. Scientists picked the Latin form for its precision, since "annual" in everyday English could also mean "recurring each year" and not specifically a plant that germinates, flowers, seeds, and dies within twelve months.

Synonyms: annual

Antonyms: perennial