sapling
Americannoun
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saplings
plural
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a young tree.
-
a young person.
noun
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a young tree
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literary a youth
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sapling
late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425; see origin at sap 1, -ling 1
Explanation
A young tree with a slender trunk is known as a sapling. Just as a young duck is called a "duckling," a young tree is called a sapling. The suffix "-ling" comes from Old English and often shows up today at the end of words to mean "young" or "youngster." Brothers and sisters are called siblings. A baby goose is called a gosling. Someone who works under you is called an underling. The way to remember the meaning of sapling is that trees make "sap" — the sweet, sugary liquid that, in sugar maples, gets turned into syrup. A young tree, then, is known as a sapling. One day, it'll make sap.
Vocabulary lists containing sapling
The Secret Life of Bees
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Pax
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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:
Tyler and Cora steady a western redbud sapling as Atticus holds up a bag of soil and Eliza shovels out the fragrant earth.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
With increasing urgency, the couple scouted area ponds for suitable release sites, the trick being to find one currently unoccupied by other beavers, with abundant sapling growth as a food supply.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
That syrupy-sweet and shockingly crisp fruit came from an unremarkable sapling that Bedford, then a graduate student, had rescued from the discard pile of a University of Minnesota breeding program.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
It was brought from Grenada to south-west London as a sapling in the 1980s by one of the street's residents, Marline Anderson, who died in June.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2025
He looks around, finds a sapling that seems to be just right for what he is searching for, and cuts it down with his hatchet.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
The scheme began in 2024 and volunteers have so far restored meadows and created scrub banks to protect saplings.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
During the Bounty’s infamous mutiny, Tahitian breadfruit saplings filled its hold.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Over-population of deer means they graze on young plants and tree saplings before they ever have a chance to reach maturity.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
At one burn, Hanson proposed that we make a side trip and wade through the brush up on a steep canyon wall where, he assured me, we would find even more saplings just breaking through.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2025
He washed the hide in water mixed with crumbled oak bark to loosen the hairs, then stretched it between two saplings -well out of Wolf’s leaping-range.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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.
