ceiba
Americannoun
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any bombacaceous tropical tree of the genus Ceiba, such as the silk-cotton tree
-
silk cotton; kapok
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ceiba
First recorded in 1805–15; from Spanish, from Taíno ceyba or its cognate in another Arawakan language
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:
Here's a story about the 400-year-old ceiba tree on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2019
In one entrancing swath of forest, towering ceiba trees loom and hooting howler monkeys leap from branch to branch in the understory.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 26, 2018
Utuado is surrounded by dense forest of native ceiba, Asian teaks, and West Indian and Honduran mahogany where parrots roost.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2017
THE road to Atjoni got more interesting as the wind grew stronger, making the surrounding ceiba trees of the Surinamese jungle murmur with whispers of an impending storm.
From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2011
Celia frequently stops by the ceiba tree in the Plaza de las Armas on her way home from Palmas Street.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Driving west from El Hormiguero toward the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, the road wends through ceibas, strangler figs, and sapodillas, a tree prized since Maya times for its chicle gum.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 11, 2023
Farther out it was whipped into a yellow cream by the thrashing branches of uprooted trees, ceibas and cedars, huge as a church, which rolled and tumbled as their submerged limbs caught on the bottom.
From The Mystery of The Barranca by Herman Whitaker
It is a real tropic forest, palms and bananas, breadfruit trees, bamboos, lofty ceibas, and gorgeous butterflies and brilliant colored birds fluttering among the orchids.
From Letters to His Children by Theodore Roosevelt
The sun had slanted slow; ceibas and silk-cotton woods threw a shade dark almost as twilight; but the air was full of breathless heat, and Kettle's white drill clothes hung upon him clammy and damp.
From A Master of Fortune Being Further Adventures of Captain Kettle by Stanley L. Wood
The emerald coronels of the giant ceibas on the far lake verge burned softly with a ruddy glow.
From Carmen Ariza by Charles Francis Stocking
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.
