duckweed
/ˈdʌkˌwid/noun
duckweed is a noun meaning “Any of several reduced floating aquatic plants in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the family Araceae” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-U-C-K-W-E-E-D and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 16 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of duckweed is duckweeds.
What does duckweed mean?
noun
- 1
Any of several reduced floating aquatic plants in the subfamily Lemnoideae of the family Araceae.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce duckweed?
- US /ˈdʌkˌwid/
Duckweed has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-duckweed.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of duckweed
- duckweeds plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is duckweed?
Duckweed appears about once in every 16 million words in written English, the 121,279th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you abbreviate duckweed?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of duckweed: weed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Duckweed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense plant:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lentille d’eau |
| German | Wasserlinse, Entengrütze |
| Portuguese | lentilha-d'água |
| Spanish | lenteja de agua |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does duckweed come from?
From duck + weed. Supposedly so-named for often being consumed by ducks and other waterfowl. Compare Middle English dokemete (“duckweed”, literally “duck-food”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).