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You may be familiar with the common phrase “flora and fauna,” which broadly refers to just about every visible living thing. While fauna specifically refers to the animals of a region, flora represents the plants. Flora made its way into English from New Latin via the Latin word flōra, which comes from the name of the Roman goddess of flowers and the flowering season (the time of the year when flowers bloom). Flora, who was depicted as a beautiful young woman in a long, flowing dress with flowers in her hair, strewing flowers over the earth, was especially known for wildflowers and plants not raised for food. Her name also lives on and continues to thrive through the related words floral, floret, and flourish.
Examples of flora in a Sentence
Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 July 2025
The island is volcanic in origin, with rugged terrain and a dry subtropical climate that supports unique flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth.
—Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 6 July 2025
The plant, which typically takes cooling water from the river for use before returning it, is prevented from doing so by Swiss regulations when temperatures reach 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher to avoid causing damage to aquatic fauna and flora.
—Astha Rajvanshi, NBC news, 2 July 2025
Fuller turns out to be an excellent nature writer, pinning flora and fauna and leviathan-sized Midwest clouds to the page.
—James Marcus, New Yorker, 2 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for flora
Cite this Entry
“Flora.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flora. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
flora
noun
Medical Definition
flora
noun
ˈflȯ(ə)r-
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