cedar
Americannoun
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cedars
plural
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any of several Old World, coniferous trees of the genus Cedrus, having wide, spreading branches.
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any of various junipers, as the red cedar, Juniperus virginiana, of the cypress family, having reddish-brown bark and dark-blue, berrylike fruit.
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any of various other coniferous trees.
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any of several trees belonging to the genus Cedrela, of the mahogany family, as the Spanish cedar.
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Also called cedarwood. the fragrant wood of any of these trees, used in furniture and as a moth repellent.
noun
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any Old World coniferous tree of the genus Cedrus, having spreading branches, needle-like evergreen leaves, and erect barrel-shaped cones: family Pinaceae See also cedar of Lebanon deodar
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any of various other conifers, such as the red cedars and white cedars
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the wood of any of these trees
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any of certain other plants, such as the Spanish cedar
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cedar
before 1000; Middle English cedir, Old English ceder < Latin cedrus < Greek kédros; replacing Middle English cedre < Old French < Latin, as above
Explanation
A cedar is an evergreen tree with a particularly fragrant wood. The trees in your yard that keep their green needles through the winter might be cedars. There are many different varieties of cedars, including a popular Christmas tree in the Southern US, the Eastern Red Cedar. Cedars are probably best known for the strong, appealing scent of their wood, which is often used to line storage chests or closets, both for the smell and its tendency to repel moths. The Greek root of cedar is kedros.
Vocabulary lists containing cedar
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:
Spanning 3,180 square feet, the home is akin to a resort-level wellness retreat, offering a large cedar hot tub, a cold plunge, and a dry sauna.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Its species name, cedrus, refers to cedar trees, evergreen conifers similar to those that existed in Late Triassic forests.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 23, 2026
A canopy of Jeffrey pine, red fir and incense cedar shaded the trail.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2025
These 4,600-year-old funerary boats, made of cedar and acacia, were intended to transport the king into the afterlife.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2025
When I came to the inn, Anker himself was up on a ladder nailing a long piece of cedar siding back into place.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
"We've already lost trees," said Rosie Fyles, head of gardens at Chiswick House in west London, whose Kent-designed shady lawns dotted with statues and cedars of Lebanon date back to the 18th century.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
This was the place where families could raise their children in peace under the deodar cedars and watch the San Gabriels fade to a distinct purple as the sun set.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2026
"Previously, it was spruces or cedars, but today, we find endemic species better adapted to the climate," Merdan Arazmedov, a member of Turkmenistan's Nature Protection Society, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Dec. 18, 2025
Preserving the trees is critical, because without the cedars, there is no Christmas Tree Lane.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2025
They took the DeSoto over snow-dazzled roads decorated with cracked and fallen branches and with the green twigs of cedars and hemlocks.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
