Tree - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms

/tri/

IPA guide

Other forms: trees; treed

A tree is a large plant with a trunk, branches, and leaves. If you have an apple tree in your backyard, you'll have apples in the fall — and a nice shady place to sit in the summer.

The thick, woody trunk is actually the stem of a tree, and its ability to grow so much taller than other plants evolved partly as a way for trees to absorb more sunlight. Trees do a lot for humans, including providing oxygen, giving us places to climb, producing fruit, shading us, and providing lumber and fuel. As a verb, tree means "chase into a tree," the way your dog might tree the neighbor's cat.

Definitions of tree

noun
a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms

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types:
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yellowwood, yellowwood tree
any of various trees having yellowish wood or yielding a yellow extract

Oxandra lanceolata, lancewood, lancewood tree
source of most of the lancewood of commerce

Guinea pepper, Xylopia aethiopica, negro pepper
tropical west African evergreen tree bearing pungent aromatic seeds used as a condiment and in folk medicine

anise tree
any of several evergreen shrubs and small trees of the genus Illicium

Drimys winteri, winter's bark, winter's bark tree
South American evergreen tree yielding winter's bark and a light soft wood similar to basswood

zebrawood, zebrawood tree
any of various trees or shrubs having mottled or striped wood

Brya ebenus, granadilla tree, granadillo
West Indian tree yielding a fine grade of green ebony

acacia
any of various spiny trees or shrubs of the genus Acacia

Adenanthera pavonina, Barbados pride, coral-wood, coralwood, peacock flower fence, red sandalwood
East Indian tree with racemes of yellow-white flowers; cultivated as an ornamental

albizia, albizzia
any of numerous trees of the genus Albizia

Enterolobium cyclocarpa, conacaste, elephant's ear
tropical South American tree having a wide-spreading crown of bipinnate leaves and coiled ear-shaped fruits; grown for shade and ornament as well as valuable timber

inga
any tree or shrub of the genus Inga having pinnate leaves and showy usually white flowers; cultivated as ornamentals

Inga edulis, ice-cream bean
ornamental evergreen tree with masses of white flowers; tropical and subtropical America

Inga laurina, guama
tropical tree of Central America and West Indies and Puerto Rico having spikes of white flowers; used as shade for coffee plantations

Leucaena glauca, Leucaena leucocephala, lead tree, white popinac
low scrubby tree of tropical and subtropical North America having white flowers tinged with yellow resembling mimosa and long flattened pods

Lysiloma bahamensis, Lysiloma latisiliqua, wild tamarind
a tree of the West Indies and Florida and Mexico; resembles tamarind and has long flat pods

nitta tree
any of several Old World tropical trees of the genus Parkia having heads of red or yellow flowers followed by pods usually containing edible seeds and pulp

Pithecellobium dulce, camachile, huamachil, manila tamarind, wild tamarind
common thorny tropical American tree having terminal racemes of yellow flowers followed by sickle-shaped or circinate edible pods and yielding good timber and a yellow dye and mucilaginous gum

Alstonia scholaris, devil tree, dita, dita bark
evergreen tree of eastern Asia and Philippines having large leathery leaves and small green-white flowers in compact cymes; bark formerly used medicinally

Holarrhena antidysenterica, Holarrhena pubescens, conessi, ivory tree, kurchee, kurchi
tropical Asian tree with hard white wood and bark formerly used as a remedy for dysentery and diarrhea

Meryta sinclairii, puka
small roundheaded New Zealand tree having large resinous leaves and panicles of green-white flowers

Pisonia aculeata, cockspur
small spiny West Indian tree

pandanus, screw pine
any of various Old World tropical palmlike trees having huge prop roots and edible conelike fruits and leaves like pineapple leaves

Hoheria populnea, houhere, lacebark, ribbonwood
small tree or shrub of New Zealand having a profusion of axillary clusters of honey-scented paper-white flowers and whose bark is used for cordage

Plagianthus betulinus, Plagianthus regius, ribbon tree, ribbonwood
deciduous New Zealand tree whose inner bark yields a strong fiber that resembles flax and is called New Zealand cotton

tulipwood tree
any of various trees yielding variously colored woods similar to true tulipwood

Bombax ceiba, Bombax malabarica, red silk-cotton tree, simal
East Indian silk cotton tree yielding fibers inferior to kapok

Montezuma
evergreen tree with large leathery leaves and large pink to orange flowers; considered a link plant between families Bombacaceae and Sterculiaceae

Pseudobombax ellipticum, shaving-brush tree
tree of Mexico to Guatemala having densely hairy flowers with long narrow petals clustered at ends of branches before leaves appear

Brisbane quandong, Elaeocarpus grandis, blue fig, quandong, quandong tree, silver quandong tree
Australian tree having hard white timber and glossy green leaves with white flowers followed by one-seeded glossy blue fruit

Jamaican cherry, Muntingia calabura, calabur tree, calabura, silk wood, silkwood
a fast-growing tropical American evergreen having white flowers and white fleshy edible fruit; bark yields a silky fiber used in cordage and wood is valuable for staves

Sloanea jamaicensis, break-axe, breakax, breakaxe
West Indian timber tree having very hard wood

bottle tree, bottle-tree
an Australian tree of the genus Brachychiton

Chinese parasol, Chinese parasol tree, Firmiana simplex, Japanese varnish tree, phoenix tree
deciduous tree widely grown in southern United States as an ornamental for its handsome maplelike foliage and long racemes of yellow-green flowers followed by curious leaflike pods

Pterospermum acerifolium, maple-leaved bayur, mayeng
Indian tree having fragrant nocturnal white flowers and yielding a reddish wood used for planking; often grown as an ornamental or shade tree

Tarrietia argyrodendron, silver tree
Australian timber tree

Triplochiton scleroxcylon, arere, obeche, obechi, samba
large west African tree having large palmately lobed leaves and axillary cymose panicles of small white flowers and one-winged seeds; yields soft white to pale yellow wood

basswood, lime, lime tree, linden, linden tree
any of various deciduous trees of the genus Tilia with heart-shaped leaves and drooping cymose clusters of yellowish often fragrant flowers; several yield valuable timber

Leucadendron argenteum, silver tree
small South African tree with long silvery silky foliage

Orites excelsa, prickly ash
Australian tree having alternate simple leaves (when young they are pinnate with prickly toothed margins) and slender axillary spikes of white flowers

Stenocarpus sinuatus, firewheel tree, wheel tree
eastern Australian tree widely cultivated as a shade tree and for its glossy leaves and circular clusters of showy red to orange-scarlet flowers

Stenocarpus salignus, beefwood, scrub beefwood
tree or tall shrub with shiny leaves and umbels of fragrant creamy-white flowers; yields hard heavy reddish wood

casuarina
any of various trees and shrubs of the genus Casuarina having jointed stems and whorls of scalelike leaves; some yield heavy hardwood

beech, beech tree
any of several large deciduous trees with rounded spreading crowns and smooth grey bark and small sweet edible triangular nuts enclosed in burs; north temperate regions

chestnut, chestnut tree
any of several attractive deciduous trees yellow-brown in autumn; yield a hard wood and edible nuts in a prickly bur

oak chestnut
a tree of the genus Castanopsis

Castanea chrysophylla, Castanopsis chrysophylla,