mahogany

American  

[muh-hog-uh-nee] / məˈhɒg ə ni /

noun

mahoganies plural

1. any of several tropical American trees of the genus Swietenia, especially S. mahagoni and S. macrophylla, yielding hard, reddish-brown wood used for making furniture.

2. the wood itself.

3. any of various similar trees or their wood.

4. a reddish-brown color.

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adjective

1. pertaining to or made of mahogany.

2. of the color mahogany.

mahogany British  

/ məˈhɒɡənɪ /

noun

1. any of various tropical American trees of the meliaceous genus Swietenia, esp S. mahagoni and S. macrophylla, valued for their hard reddish-brown wood

2. any of several trees with similar wood, such as African mahogany (genus Khaya ) and Philippine mahogany (genus Shorea )

3. 1. the wood of any of these trees See also acajou

   2. ( as modifier )

      a mahogany table

4. 1. a reddish-brown colour

   2. ( as modifier )

      mahogany skin

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mahoganies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mahogany

First recorded in 1665–75; perhaps < some non-Carib language of the West Indies

Explanation

Mahogany is a dark, reddish-brown wood that comes from a tree also called a mahogany. You can also use this word for the color itself. A fancy dining room table might be made of mahogany. If your best friend has rich brown hair with red highlights, feel free to compliment her on her mahogany locks. This color's name comes from mahogany timber, sturdy wood that's used to make high-end furniture, boats, and musical instruments, including guitars. The mahogany tree only grows in tropical regions, including parts of South America, Florida, and the West Indies. The word comes from the Spanish mahogani.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mahogany mahoganies

Its first owner, Argentine President Juan Perón, fell in love with the two-tone hardtop car, with a lustrous cream color on the roof and rich mahogany on the bottom, at the Paris Salon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026

The guitar, a mahogany Gibson SG, was one Iommi said he had owned for a while and used at home.

From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025

“She recognized the quality of things. I was about to auction my mahogany Chippendale chairs, and I kept thinking, ‘Gee, they’re so beautiful,’” Lucci said.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 5, 2025

Customers are increasingly being lured by brands like TimberTech, which dispense with wood altogether in favor of polyvinyl chloride patterned to resemble mahogany, teak, or hickory.

From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025

There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano—but I am not myself there.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

Some intense blooms tint the ocean in swirling blues, mahoganies or “red tides” visible from space—psychedelic watercolors of microscopic life on a macroscale.

From Scientific American ● Jan. 24, 2022

The furniture crafted from the grand mahoganies is said to glow and "smile" at the beholder.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the hardest-hit areas, 60% of the hardwood trees are gone, including huge mahoganies, and many of the rare Puerto Rican parrots have disappeared.

From Time Magazine Archive

Technicolor has seldom been more affectionately used than in its registrations of the sober mahoganies and tender muslins and benign gaslights of the period.

From Time Magazine Archive

The cane-fields are broad sheets of beautiful gold-green; and nearly as bright are the masses of pomme-cannelle frondescence, the groves of lemon and orange; while tamarind and mahoganies are heavily sombre.

From Two Years in the French West Indies by Hearn, Lafcadio