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tree of life

American  

noun

  1. a tree in the Garden of Eden that yielded food giving everlasting life. Genesis 2:9; 3:22.

  2. a tree in the heavenly Jerusalem with leaves for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:2.

  3. arbor vitae.


tree of life British  

noun

  1. Old Testament a tree in the Garden of Eden, the fruit of which had the power of conferring eternal life (Genesis 2:9; 3:22)

  2. New Testament a tree in the heavenly Jerusalem, for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2)

"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

Etymology

Origin of tree of life

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English

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.

"The approach was two-fold: by collecting sequence data from hundreds of species and combining this with known fossil evidence, we were able to create a time-resolved tree of life. We could then apply this framework to better resolve the timing of historical events within individual gene families," explained co-lead author Professor Tom Williams in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Bath.

From Science Daily

"It makes Salterella difficult to place on the tree of life," explained Prescott Vayda, a geosciences graduate student who led a recent study on the mysterious fossil published in the Journal of Paleontology.

From Science Daily

"This is perhaps the first high-resolution microscopy technique that has the potential to match the scale and ambition of large biodiversity genomics projects, enabling us in the near future to associate new multiomics data with cellular physiology at scale across the tree of life."

From Science Daily

"This means the pattern holds for species in all major groups that have diverged massively as the tree of life has grown throughout billions of years of evolution. Despite this rich diversity of life, our study shows basically all life forms remain remarkably constrained by this 'rule' on how temperature influences their ability to function. The best evolution has managed is to move this curve around -- life hasn't found a way to deviate from this one very specific thermal performance shape."

From Science Daily

Weiss, who once belonged to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that was the site of a shooting massacre in 2018, is a staunch Israel supporter.

From Los Angeles Times