Library / English Dictionary

FOREST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: forest   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The trees and other plants in a large densely wooded area

Synonyms:

forest; wood; woods

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("forest" is a kind of...):

botany; flora; vegetation (all the plant life in a particular region or period)

Meronyms (members of "forest"):

underbrush; undergrowth; underwood (the brush (small trees and bushes and ferns etc.) growing beneath taller trees in a wood or forest)

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

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "forest"):

bosk (a small wooded area)

grove (a small growth of trees without underbrush)

jungle (an impenetrable equatorial forest)

rain forest; rainforest (a forest with heavy annual rainfall)

old growth; virgin forest (forest or woodland having a mature or overly mature ecosystem more or less uninfluenced by human activity)

second growth (a second growth of trees covering an area where the original stand was destroyed by fire or cutting)

Derivation:

forest (establish a forest on previously unforested land)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Land that is covered with trees and shrubs

Synonyms:

forest; timber; timberland; woodland

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("forest" is a kind of...):

biome (a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate)

dry land; earth; ground; land; solid ground; terra firma (the solid part of the earth's surface)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "forest"):

greenwood (woodlands in full leaf)

riparian forest (woodlands along the banks of stream or river)

silva; sylva (the forest trees growing in a country or region)

tree farm (a forest (or part of a forest) where trees are grown for commercial use)

Instance hyponyms:

Black Forest; Schwarzwald (a hilly forest region in southwestern Germany)

Sherwood Forest (an ancient forest in central England; formerly a royal hunting ground; said to be the home of Robin Hood and his merry band)

Wilderness (a wooded region in northeastern Virginia near Spotsylvania where bloody but inconclusive battles were fought in the American Civil War)

Derivation:

forest (establish a forest on previously unforested land)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Establish a forest on previously unforested land

Example:

afforest the mountains

Synonyms:

afforest; forest

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "forest" is one way to...):

plant; set (put or set (seeds, seedlings, or plants) into the ground)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "forest"):

re-afforest (reestablish a forest after clear-cutting or fire, etc.)

reforest (forest anew)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

forest (the trees and other plants in a large densely wooded area)

forest (land that is covered with trees and shrubs)

forestry (the science of planting and caring for forests and the management of growing timber)

Credits

 Context examples: 

They collected soil samples, enveloped trees in belts to measure growth on a fine scale and planted sensors that continue to collect data on soil moisture and temperature, which varies widely in forests.

(From tropical to boreal ecosystems, temperature drives functioning, National Science Foundation)

Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This could be quite a romantic location in a mountainous region with a lush forest.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It grows in shady forests as well as on open rocky or sandy shores.

(Morinda citrifolia, NCI Thesaurus)

Barmah forest viruses are transmitted mainly via the bite of infected mosquitoes.

(Barmah Forest Virus, NCI Thesaurus)

One day, not long after, he came to the edge of the forest, where a narrow stretch of open land sloped down to the Mackenzie.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Between 1985 and 2015, 219,735 hectares (2,197 km2) of the Atlantic Forest remnants went through a process of regeneration in nine of the 17 Brazilian states that have the forest.

(Brazil: Atlantic Forest regeneration in nine states, Agência Brasil)

It was the only sign of earth life which I saw in this great Amazonian forest.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Snow and ice appear white and forests are green.

(Retreat of Yakutat Glacier, NASA)

That means almost no forests can really be considered wilderness.

(Shrinking habitats have adverse effects on world ecosystems, NSF)