What does cinquefoil mean?
Cinquefoil is the common name for plants of the genus Potentilla, a widespread group in the rose family found throughout temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Most species bear cheerful five-petaled flowers — usually yellow, though some are white, pink, or red — and many have leaves divided into five leaflets, which is what gave the plant its name: French cinq ('five') plus feuille ('leaf'). Gardeners value shrubby cinquefoil as a hardy, long-flowering ornamental, while creeping species are familiar wildflowers of meadows and roadsides. The word also has a second, unrelated-seeming life in art and architecture, where a cinquefoil is a five-lobed ornamental shape carved into Gothic window tracery and used as a charge in heraldry. Though somewhat formal or specialist in tone, the word rewards anyone interested in gardens, wildflowers, or medieval stonework.
nounA cinquefoil is a plant of the genus Potentilla in the rose family, typically having five-petaled yellow or white flowers; it also refers to a five-lobed decorative shape used in Gothic architecture and heraldry.
- Any herbaceous plant or shrub of the genus Potentilla, with five-petaled flowers.
- An ornamental design of five lobes arranged around a central point, common in Gothic tracery and heraldry.
"Wild strawberry-like cinquefoil spread across the sunny bank, its five-petaled yellow blooms opening to the morning light."
"Creeping cinquefoil carpeted the roadside verge with small yellow flowers all summer long."
"The rose window's stone tracery was built from interlacing cinquefoils, each lobe framing a pane of coloured glass."
The plural is regular. In architectural contexts, 'cinquefoils' commonly describes repeated five-lobed openings in tracery.
"The cloister arcade was pierced with a row of delicate cinquefoils."
The name literally means 'five leaves' — and medieval masons carved it into cathedral windows so often that the five-lobed shape became an icon of Gothic architecture.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cinquefoil
Cinquefoil entered English from Old French cincfoille, itself derived from Latin quinquefolium, meaning 'five-leaved' — a combination of quinque ('five') and folium ('leaf'). The name originally described plants whose leaves were divided into five leaflets, and it was later extended to the five-lobed ornamental shape used by masons and heralds. The same Latin root quinque gives English words such as quintuple, quintessence, and quintet.
How cinquefoil is actually used
In botanical contexts 'cinquefoil' refers specifically to members of the genus Potentilla; in architectural and heraldic writing it names the five-lobed shape. The word is somewhat formal or specialist in register, encountered mainly in gardening literature, field guides, and histories of architecture.
Easily confused with cinquefoil
A quatrefoil is a four-lobed ornamental shape, whereas a cinquefoil has five lobes (or, botanically, five petals).
Cinquefoil resembles wild strawberry but bears dry, inedible seed heads rather than fleshy edible berries.