cottonwood
Americannoun
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cottonwoods
plural
noun
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any of several North American poplars, esp Populus deltoides, whose seeds are covered with cottony hairs
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Also called: tauhinu. a native New Zealand shrub, Cassinia leptophylla , with daisy-like flowers
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cottonwood
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.
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“It brings back memories of hunkering down behind an old cottonwood drift log…drinking black coffee from a Stanley thermos and waiting for mallards to whistle by,” he mused on Facebook, where he does his campaigning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Vegetation visible along the reservoir shoreline and river channel includes tamarisk, willow, cottonwood, sedges, and various grasses.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2026
McCamish pointed to a nearby stand of cottonwood trees rustling in the wind.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2026
There is a grand old cottonwood tree that rises up from the edge of the Kirkland urban buffer behind my house.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
Belle stomps, passing cottonwood trees, their brittle branches beginning to seed.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
When an eight-mile stretch of cottonwoods and willows suddenly died in 2005, it became clear that something needed to change.
From Slate ● May 26, 2025
The wetland attracts birds, such as coots and tricolored blackbirds, and also recharges the aquifer that the roots of cottonwoods and willows tap into.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2024
If I close my eyes, the sounds the tree makes can carry me into memory’s place where a large stand of cottonwoods grew gnarled and ancient along the riverbank of my childhood.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
Within a few years, there were 9600 young cottonwoods in a single hectare.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 18, 2023
Under the jack oaks and the cottonwoods there was nothing.
From "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong
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.
