conifer
Americannoun
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conifers
plural
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any of numerous, chiefly evergreen trees or shrubs of the class Coniferinae (or group Coniferales), including the pine, fir, spruce, and other cone-bearing trees and shrubs, and also the yews and their allies that bear drupelike seeds.
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a plant producing naked seeds in cones, or single naked seeds as in yews, but with pollen always borne in cones.
noun
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Any of various gymnosperms that bear their reproductive structures in cones and belong to the phylum Coniferophyta. Conifers evolved around 300 million years ago and, as a group, show many adaptations to drier and cooler environments. They are usually evergreen and often have drought-resistant leaves that are needle-shaped or scalelike. They depend on the wind to blow pollen produced by male cones to female cones, where fertilization takes place and seeds develop. Conifers are widely distributed, but conifer species dominate the northern forest biome known as the taiga. There are some 550 species of conifers, including the pines, firs, spruces, hemlocks, cypresses, junipers, yews, and redwoods.
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See more at pollination seed-bearing plant
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of conifer
1350–1400; Middle English conefere < Latin cōnifer coniferous, equivalent to cōn ( us ) cone + -i- + -fer -fer
Explanation
A conifer is a type of tree that produces cones and evergreen needles. Spot a pile of cones beneath a tree and you've found yourself a conifer. With the word cone embedded in it, it's no surprise that conifer is the term used for cone-producing trees. Conifers can often be identified by their typically long needle-shaped leaves like the kind you find on a Christmas tree. Mostly found in northern forests where the winters are cold, the tough prickly leaves on conifers make them adaptable to the weather.
Vocabulary lists containing conifer
Stump Speech: Tree Terminology
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The United States
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Plants (Botany) - Introduction
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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:
The conifer forests, which were heavily logged over the last century, will be managed by the tribal government as two protected areas, the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary and the Yurok Tribal Community Forest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2025
The couple, who have been together for 11 years, exchanged vows before an array of conifer branches and lights - their two young sons had front row seats.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2025
Angiosperms, or flowering plants, grew back faster and denser than the previously ubiquitous conifer relatives had been.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2024
"Instead of the evergreen conifer forest coming back right away, in some regions, we see a long-term replacement of these forests with faster-growing species."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024
They were still flying over subarctic taiga, a seemingly endless landscape of conifer forest—in English this is sometimes called “snow forest.”
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
The forest sees 15 million visitors each year, making it vulnerable to fires -- quite apart from its sandy soil and vegetation consisting of ferns and highly flammable conifers.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 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
Farther up, he pointed out clumps of new conifers, some up to 18 feet tall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2025
"We haven't put the conifers back and the nation needs timber."
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
Then I would heat my coffee and sit comfortably on my back step and contemplate wood and water and the quick-rising mountains with crowns of conifers and the fir trees high up, dusted with snow.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
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.
