| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| cinquefoil |
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| SYLLABICATION: | cinque·foil |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  s ngk foil , s ngk- |
| NOUN: | 1. Any of several plants of the genus Potentilla in the rose family, native chiefly to temperate and cold regions and having yellow or sometimes white or red flowers and compound leaves that in some species bear five leaflets. 2. Architecture A design having five sides composed of converging arcs, usually used as a frame for glass or a panel. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English cinkfoil : cink, five; see cinque + foil, leaf (translation of Old French quintefeuille, from Latin qu nquefolium, translation of Greek pentaphullon); see foil2.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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