conifer
Americannoun
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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:
Hanson assured me this vast landscape of brush was already making its return as a conifer forest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 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
The corridor offers sightseeing, sports and history amid conifer forests, alpine passes and more — but you’ll have to slow down a bit.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2024
Even though most of Japan escaped the glaciers that blanketed Britain and Canada, Japan was still cold, dry, and extensively covered with conifer and birch forests offering little plant food to humans.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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
"We haven't put the conifers back and the nation needs timber."
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
This is very easy to picture on a hot day in California fire country, where conifers rustle against the eaves and the ground is dusty-dry.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2025
The research team combined data from 11 projects, each of which analysed many different research aspects of European beech forests enriched with conifers.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
These conifers, though still small, have started to produce pine cones—seeds to help spread more plant life and return the forest to an area once again filled with towering trees.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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.
