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iris.

A plant of the genus Iris, common in the northern hemisphere, and generally having attractive blooms (See Iris (plant) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ).

4 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈaɪ.ɹɪs/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈaɪ.ɹɪs/Canada[ˈʌɪ.ɹɪs]Canada/ˈɑɪ.ɹɪs/Australia
  1. A plant of the genus Iris, common in the northern hemisphere, and generally having attractive blooms (See Iris (plant) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ).

  2. The contractile membrane perforated by the pupil, which adjusts to control the amount of light reaching the retina, and which forms the colored portion of the eye (See Iris (anatomy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ).

  3. A diaphragm used to regulate the size of a hole, especially as a way of controlling the amount of light reaching a lens.

  4. A rainbow, or other colourful refraction of light.

    poetic
  5. A constricted opening in the path inside a waveguide, used to form a resonator.

  6. The inner circle of an oscillated color spot.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris)bor. Latin irisbor. English iris From Middle English iris, from Latin īris, from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”). Presuming an earlier form *ϝῖρις (*wîris), possibly from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *w(e)ih₁-ro- (“a twist, thread, cord, wire”), from *weh₁y- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”). If so, it would be cognate to English wire.

verb/ˈaɪ.ɹɪs/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈaɪ.ɹɪs/Canada[ˈʌɪ.ɹɪs]Canada/ˈɑɪ.ɹɪs/Australia
  1. To open or close in the manner of an iris.

  2. To cause (something) to shine with the colours of the rainbow; to make iridescent.

    literary
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris)bor. Latin irisbor. English iris From Middle English iris, from Latin īris, from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”). Presuming an earlier form *ϝῖρις (*wîris), possibly from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *w(e)ih₁-ro- (“a twist, thread, cord, wire”), from *weh₁y- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”). If so, it would be cognate to English wire.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.