deciduous
Americanadjective
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shedding the leaves annually, as certain trees and shrubs.
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falling off or shed at a particular season, stage of growth, etc., as leaves, horns, or teeth.
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not permanent; transitory.
adjective
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Shedding leaves at the end of a growing season and regrowing them at the beginning of the next growing season. Most deciduous plants bear flowers and have woody stems and broad rather than needlelike leaves. Maples, oaks, elms, and aspens are deciduous.
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Compare evergreen See more at abscission
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Falling off or shed at a particular season or stage of growth, as antlers.
Other Word Forms
- deciduously adverb
- deciduousness noun
- nondeciduous adjective
- nondeciduously adverb
- nondeciduousness noun
Etymology
Origin of deciduous
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin dēciduus “tending to fall, falling,” equivalent to dēcid(ere) “to fall off, down” ( dē- verb prefix of removal) + -cidere (combining form of cadere “to fall”) + -uus adjective suffix. See de-, -ous
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.
In Gramsh, the municipality is exploring options to alternate pines with other trees, especially deciduous species.
From Barron's • Oct. 11, 2025
They planted a Blue Beech, a small deciduous tree native to eastern North America and known for its bright autumn leaves.
From BBC • May 26, 2025
It included 16 ingredients, Indian mulberry, golden eye-grass, the deciduous perennial Asian lizard’s tail and the carrot-like plant Szechuan Lovage among them.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 2, 2024
"With increasing temperatures and wildfire activity, we're seeing increased growth of bigger, deciduous shrubs," Welch said, whose team studied five different alpine tundra sites for the research, which appears in Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research.
From Science Daily • Apr. 16, 2024
“She is only a world-famous writer who wrote three Pulitzer Prize books about the deciduous trees of South Carolina.”
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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.
