Blossom

How to spell blossom

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blossom

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blossom mean?

1. nounThe flower or mass of flowers on a tree or plant, especially in spring.
2. verbTo produce flowers, or to develop and flourish over time.

Blossom in a sentence

• noun

  The cherry tree was covered in pink blossom by early April.

• verb

  The orchard will blossom as soon as the weather turns warm.

• noun

  A sudden frost can damage the apple blossom and ruin the harvest.

• verb

  Her career began to blossom once she moved to the city.

Where does blossom come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Blossom comes from the Old English word blostm or blostma, which simply meant a flower or the act of flowering. That word grew from a Proto-Germanic root blo-, meaning 'to bloom' or 'to burst into flower', the very same ancient root that also gives us 'bloom' and 'blade'. The deeper Indo-European ancestor is connected to the Latin florere, 'to flower', so blossom is a distant cousin of words like 'floral' and 'flourish'. Over the centuries the spelling settled with its distinctive double s in the middle, even though only one s is heard, which is the main thing to remember. The word kept both its literal sense of spring flowers and a figurative sense of something developing well, a meaning recorded in English for many hundreds of years.

How the word is built

• blossom (from Old English blostm: flower/bloom)
• double -ss- stem