tamarack

[ tam-uh-rak ]

/ ˈtæm əˌræk /

noun

an American larch, Larix laricina, of the pine family, having a reddish-brown bark and crowded clusters of blue-green needles and yielding a useful timber.

any of several related, very similar trees.

the wood of these trees.

Nearby words

tamandu, tamandua, tamar, tamara, tamarac, tamarack, tamarao, tamarau, tamari, tamarillo, tamarin

Origin of tamarack

1795–1805, Americanism; compare Canadian French tamarac; assumed to be of Algonquian orig.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for tamarack

Green pine, cedar, fir and tamarack burn slowly and require much dry wood to help keep them burning.
Woodcraft|E. H. (Elmer Harry) Kreps
You see him scampering up and down the great trunk of a pine, fir or tamarack.
Birds and Nature Vol. 11 No. 4 [April 1902]|Various
The original meaning was the "wild, rushing red water," from the hue given by the pine and tamarack forests.
America, Volume II (of 6)|Joel Cook
They may be seen toward nightfall making their way by twos and threes to the tamarack swamp across the lake.
Sigurd Our Golden Collie and Other Comrades of the Road|Katharine Lee Bates

The more northern portion is interspersed with groves of pine, tamarack, cedar, balsam and hardwoods.
Fifty Years In The Northwest|William Henry Carman Folsom

British Dictionary definitions for tamarack

tamarack

/ (ˈtæməˌræk) /

noun

any of several North American larches, esp Larix laricina, which has reddish-brown bark, bluish-green needle-like leaves, and shiny oval cones

the wood of any of these trees

Word Origin for tamarack

C19: from Algonquian

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tamarack

tamarack

North American red larch, 1805, probably of Algonquian origin (cf. synonymous hackmatack, 1792, from a source akin to Abenaki akemantak "a kind of supple wood used for making snowshoes").