acacia

American  

[uh-kay-shuh] / əˈkeɪ ʃə /

noun

• acacias
  plural

1. a small tree or shrub belonging to the genus Acacia, of the mimosa family, having clusters of small yellow flowers.

2. any of several other plants, as the locust tree.

3. gum arabic.

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acacia British  

/ əˈkeɪʃə /

noun

1. any shrub or tree of the tropical and subtropical leguminous genus Acacia, having compound or reduced leaves and small yellow or white flowers in dense inflorescences See also wattle 1

2. another name for locust locust

3. another name for gum arabic

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• acacias
  plural

Etymology

Origin of acacia

1535–45; < Latin < Greek akakía Egyptian thorn

Explanation

An acacia is a kind of tree or bush that grows in very warm climates. If you visit Australia, you're likely to see an acacia. Acacias are found in places like South America, Africa, and parts of Asia, though the majority of acacias grow in Australia. Many acacias have tiny leaves and are covered in thorns, although there are varieties that aren't thorny — still, the name itself comes from the Greek word akakia, "thorny Egyptian tree," probably rooted in ake, or "thorn."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

acacia acacias

Before, Ahmad could tap — meaning to cut incisions in the acacia trees, which exude sap that a few weeks later hardens into nodules of Hashab gum — four orchards in one go.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026

Vast stretches of a once-verdant acacia forest south of Sudan's capital Khartoum have been reduced to little more than fields of stumps as nearly three years of conflict have fuelled deforestation.

From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026

The acacia tree mentioned by Cakradhara also appears repeatedly.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 1, 2026

Elephants around Lake Manyara in Tanzania were killing acacia trees by ripping off bark and leaving “pale ghostly white trunks.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025

But here in the desert, nothing green could survive except tiny evergreen acacia bushes, which somehow endured the long winter months with almost no water.

From "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park

Where tall acacias once cast cool shade over a wetland just upstream from the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, barren ground now lies exposed, criss-crossed by people gathering whatever wood remains.

From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026

Pierce’s former Ph.D. student Zhengyang Wang, now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, and the other field technicians noticed they could predict which acacias one ant species lived in before even touching the tree.

From Science Magazine ● Mar. 29, 2024

Upstairs, summer sun streams through the glassed-in balcony that bends around the corner of the 380-square-foot living-dining room, framing a panoramic view of low-slung rooftops, branching acacias and a pale sliver of the Pacific beyond.

From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2022

In those 15 million acres, how many colonies of rare orchids or sundews or acacias have been consumed forever?

From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2020

There were high walls on either side, with the tops of palms and acacias showing above them.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw