balsa
Americannoun
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balsas
plural
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a tropical American tree, Ochroma pyramidale (lagopus ), of the bombax family, yielding an exceedingly light wood used for life preservers, rafts, toy airplanes, etc.
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a raft made of balsa wood.
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any life raft.
noun
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a bombacaceous tree, Ochroma lagopus , of tropical America
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Also called: balsawood. the very light wood of this tree, used for making rafts, etc
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a light raft
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of balsa
1770–80; < Spanish: boat
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:
"All you can see of Chewie's feet are his toes. My dad carved them out of balsa wood as he is an engineer too," he said.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2024
Mindy, who takes to a balsa Hobie as easily as Carol once did, has bigger plans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
The roomy interior was cooled by dry ice, with a single headlamp and a crush zone of balsa wood installed in front.
From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2022
He laid out the physics hurdles of such an epic voyage and even crafted a prototype spacecraft from poster board, balsa wood, and Elmer’s glue.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 27, 2022
On the river, the canoes were tied together in pairs to form a balsa, or raft.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
According to Peruvian tradition, the Inca Tupac Yupanqui sailed a large fleet of balsas into the Pacific, about 1470 A.D.
From Time Magazine Archive
They were taking many of the same chances as their theoretical primitives: the raft was modeled after the balsas of the ancient Peruvians.
From Time Magazine Archive
Moreover, besides the oars, they rigged a square cotton sail upon the balsas which enabled them to run before the wind without labour, steering the craft by means of a paddle at the stern.
From The Virgin of the Sun by Henry Rider Haggard
One of the more highly speculative of the Bolivian writers, Señor Posnansky, of La Paz, believes that gigantic balsas were used in bringing ten-ton monoliths across the lake to Tiahuanaco.
From Inca Land Explorations in the Highlands of Peru by Hiram Bingham
They alone employed a plank-built canoe instead of the balsas or canoe-shaped bundles of rushes of the greater part of California.
From Man, Past and Present by Alfred Court Haddon
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