arboretum
Americannoun
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arboretums,
plural
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arboreta
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of arboretum
1830–40; < Latin arborētum a plantation of trees, equivalent to arbor tree + -ētum suffix denoting place where a given plant grows ( cf. alameda)
Explanation
In even the busiest of cities you can often find an arboretum, a sort of museum for trees, where many different types of trees and shrubs are growing, kept for scientific study and for the enjoyment of the general population. The word arboretum comes from the Latin arbor, "tree," and the suffix -ētum, "place," making the meaning "a place of trees." The concept of the arboretum goes back even further than the word itself, all the way to the ancient pharaohs of Egypt, who raised and studied trees from other lands. The oldest known arboretum in the Western world is the Trsteno Arboretum, in Trsteno, Croatia, which was established in the 15th century.
Vocabulary lists containing arboretum
"Allied with Green," Vocabulary from the short story
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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Lesson 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When Daisy was a pup, Koerner began planting dozens of native plants near the Aleppo pines and fig trees, creating what he called their campground arboretum.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2025
Bombaa also complains about how ordinary Nairobians, often scrabbling to make a living, have to pay to enter some of their city’s most beautiful locations such as the arboretum or Karura forest.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2024
Peterson tasted his first pawpaw, from a wild growing tree, in his university's arboretum as a graduate student studying plant genetics.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2024
“These are Japanese trees that are growing here, in the land of our ancestors,” said Mr. Shin, 67, a former director of South Korea’s national arboretum.
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2024
We drove to the arboretum, and she told me about every single plant we saw, and it wasn’t even boring because she had a way of making things fascinating.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
They continue to flourish, as do specimens planted in the various arboreta of Kew’s Scottish equivalent, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2020
In August, the Newport Tree Society does a tour, and the arboreta are open to the public.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2018
The tree now grows in arboreta in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and D.C., increasing its chances of survival.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 30, 2018
Of the more specialized public arboreta in the United Kingdom the next to Kew are those in the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and the Glasnevin Garden in Dublin.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 4 "Aram, Eugene" to "Arcueil" by Various
Other arboreta are that of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, and the Arnold Arboretum, at Jamaica Plain, Boston.
From The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 Part 2 Amiel to Atrauli by Various
He found that plants at arboretums and public gardens inadvertently can seed wild areas with nonnative plants.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 1, 2023
Even during the grayest of winter months, there is plenty of green, and pops of color and beauty around the region in arboretums and botanical gardens.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 8, 2022
Considered “extinct in the wild,” the Franklinia tree — along with six other plants listed in the recent study — now exists only in cultivated spaces such as arboretums or botanical gardens.
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2020
Aviaries and arboretums hold a collection of exotic birds and monkeys.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2019
Parks, belts, arboretums, and clipped hedge-rows, however useful as contributing to pleasure, convenience, or science, are not the most interesting features of wood-scenery.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 46, August, 1861 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
