Bloom

How to spell bloom

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bloom

What does bloom mean?

1. nounA flower, or the flowers on a plant considered collectively.
2. verbTo produce flowers, or to develop and flourish.

Bloom in a sentence

• noun

  The rose produced a single perfect bloom this morning.

• verb

  The tulips usually bloom in late April here.

• noun

  The orchard was covered in white bloom by early spring.

• verb

  Her confidence began to bloom once she settled into the new job.

Where does bloom come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word came into English from Old Norse, where blom or blomi meant a flower or blossom; Scandinavian settlers brought it to England during the Viking age, and it took root in the language around the 1200s. The word belongs to a wider Germanic family that includes the Old English blowan, meaning to blossom or flourish, and it is a close cousin of the modern word 'blossom' itself. The original sense was simply the flower of a plant, but English quickly extended it to mean the period of flowering and then, by a natural step, the peak of health, beauty, or success, as in 'the bloom of youth'. A later technical sense grew up in fruit-growing and photography, describing the fine powdery or hazy coating seen on grapes, plums, or a coffee surface. The spelling stayed simple and phonetic with its double o, so the main thing to remember is that it is bloom, not 'blume', keeping the same vowel pattern as 'gloom' and 'broom'.

How the word is built

• bloom (single root meaning flower/blossom); no prefix or suffix