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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tumbleweed.

Any plant which habitually breaks away from its roots once dry, forming a light, rolling mass which is driven by the wind from place to place; as Russian thistle, wild indigo, witch grass, Amaranthus albus, etc.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtʌmbəlwiːd/Received-Pronunciation/ˈtʌmbəlˌwid/General-American
  1. Any plant which habitually breaks away from its roots once dry, forming a light, rolling mass which is driven by the wind from place to place; as Russian thistle, wild indigo, witch grass, Amaranthus albus, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Describing unwanted silence and inactivity. Often used of a situation when one makes a statement that is ignored or ill-received by one's audience, as the resultant silence is likened to that of a desolate desert with rolling tumbleweeds.

    attributive · countable · uncountable
  3. A tan colour, like that of a tumbleweed.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *tūmōną Proto-West Germanic *tumbōn Old English tumbiander. Middle English tumben Middle English tumblen English tumble Proto-West Germanic *weud Old English wēod Middle English weed English weed English tumbleweed From tumble + weed.

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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.