From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
vegetation
n 1: all the plant life in a particular region or period;
"Pleistocene vegetation"; "the flora of southern
California"; "the botany of China" [syn: vegetation,
flora, botany] [ant: fauna, zoology]
2: the process of growth in plants
3: an abnormal growth or excrescence (especially a warty
excrescence on the valves of the heart)
4: inactivity that is passive and monotonous, comparable to the
inactivity of plant life; "their holiday was spent in sleep
and vegetation"
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Vegetation \Veg`e*ta"tion\, n. [Cf. F. v['e]g['e]tation, L.
vegetatio an enlivening. See Vegetable.]
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1. The act or process of vegetating, or growing as a plant
does; vegetable growth.
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2. The sum of vegetable life; vegetables or plants in
general; as, luxuriant vegetation.
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3. (Med.) An exuberant morbid outgrowth upon any part,
especially upon the valves of the heart.
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Vegetation of salts (Old Chem.), a crystalline growth of an
arborescent form.
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