undergrowth
Americannoun
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low-lying vegetation or small trees growing beneath larger trees; underbrush.
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the condition of being undergrown or undersized.
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short, fine hair underlying longer, outer wool or fur.
noun
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small trees, bushes, ferns, etc, growing beneath taller trees in a wood or forest
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the condition of being undergrown
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a growth of short fine hairs beneath longer ones; underfur
Etymology
Origin of undergrowth
Explanation
The plants that grow on a forest floor, including shrubs and small trees, are called undergrowth. If you leave a marked hiking trail in the woods, you might have a hard time getting through the undergrowth. You won't find a lot of undergrowth in a North American forest in the winter — most ferns and other plants die back, and many shrubs and trees lose their leaves. In the summertime, however, undergrowth can be thick and dense under the taller, older trees. This noun dates from the 1600s, a combination of under, "beneath or below," and growth, "something that has grown."
Vocabulary lists containing undergrowth
"The Road Not Taken"
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Into the Wild
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Wolf Hollow
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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.
During the wet spring, she said, undergrowth flourished, leaving an enormous layer of tinder once heat waves took hold in June.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
"Firefighters will carry out combined operations of clearing forest undergrowth and treating the edges of the fire in the dune area," a prefecture official said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
They may be less wild about another policy Resco de Dios favors: keeping undergrowth in check with more controlled burning, including in protected forests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
The force said the car was found by specialist officers "hidden from view" and "in thick undergrowth" off the westbound carriageway.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
The undergrowth is very thick, and though there are trails where you can walk upright, the chimps seldom use them for long.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
