Aloe

How to spell aloe

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce aloe

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aloe mean?

1. nounA succulent plant with thick, spiky leaves whose soothing gel is used in skin and health products.

Aloe in a sentence

• She rubbed aloe gel on the sunburn to cool her shoulders.

• A potted aloe sat on the kitchen windowsill catching the afternoon light.

Where does aloe come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek aloē, the name for a bitter, fleshy-leaved plant, which passed into Latin as aloe and from there into Old English well before the Norman period. The Greek term itself may trace back to a Semitic source, since closely related words appear in Hebrew and other ancient languages for fragrant resins, so its deepest origin is not certain. For centuries 'aloe' referred chiefly to the bitter drug obtained from the plant's juice, prized as a medicine and even mentioned in early translations of the Bible. The modern sense, the spiky succulent grown on windowsills and used in skin gels, became familiar through the species name Aloe vera, in which the Latin vera means 'true'. The spelling trap is the quiet final 'oe', a Greek-derived vowel pair pronounced simply 'oh', which tempts writers to drop the silent 'e' or to reach for the unrelated word 'allow'.

How the word is built

• aloe (single root from Greek aloē, a fleshy-leaved plant); often seen in the fixed phrase 'aloe vera', where vera is Latin for 'true'