any flowering plant of the class Dicotyledonae, normally having two embryonic seed leaves and leaves with netlike veins. The group includes many herbaceous plants and most families of trees and shrubs
Compare monocotyledon
2.
primitive dicotyledon. any living relative of early angiosperms that branched off before the evolution of monocotyledons and eudicotyledons. The group comprises about 5 per cent of the world's plants
Derived forms
dicotyledonous (ˌdicotyˈledonous)
adjective
dicotyledon in American English
(ˌdaɪˌkɑtəˈlidən)
noun
Botany
any of a class (Magnoliopsida) of angiosperms, as oak trees, legumes, and cactuses, with an embryo containing two cotyledons (seed leaves), characterized by net-veined leaves, flower parts in fours or fives, and the presence of cambium