WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
pa•ras•ti•chy
(pi ras′ti kē),USA pronunciation n., pl. -chies. [Bot.]
- Botanyone of a number of seemingly secondary spirals or oblique ranks winding around the stem or axis to the right and left in a spiral arrangement of leaves, scales, etc., where the internodes are short and the members closely crowded, as in the houseleek and the pine cone.
- para-1 + stich1 + -y3 1870–75