Old World vine with lobed evergreen leaves and black berrylike fruits
"The climbing ivy covered the old stone wall, its dark green lobed leaves contrasting sharply with the clusters of small black berries."
Any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.
"She applied to Harvard, a prestigious university known as an Ivy."
A university that is part of the Ivy League.
In plain English: Ivy is a type of climbing plant with small green leaves that grows up walls and trees.
"The old stone wall was covered in green ivy that reached up to the roofline."
Usage: Ivy refers to any plant in the Hedera genus that climbs trees and walls using aerial roots rather than tendrils. Use this term specifically for these hardy evergreens when distinguishing them from other similar climbing vines like honeysuckle or jasmine.
A female given name from English; popular in the UK in the beginning of the 20th century.
"Ivy was a very common choice for baby girls in England during the early 1900s."
The word "ivy" comes from Old English īfiġ and traveled into Middle English as ivi. Its ultimate roots lie in Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)ebʰ-, which also gave rise to unrelated words like Welsh efwr ("black elder") and Ancient Greek íphuon ("spike-lavender").