white spruce

American  

noun

1. a spruce, Picea glauca, of northern North America, having bluish-green needles and silvery-brown bark.

2. the light, soft wood of this tree, used for pulp and in the construction of boxes, crates, etc.

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white spruce British  

noun

1. a N North American spruce tree, Picea glauca, having grey bark, pale brown oblong cones, and bluish-green needle-like leaves

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Etymology

Origin of white spruce

First recorded in 1760–70

Compare meaning

How does white-spruce compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• white spruce vs. Norway spruce
• white spruce vs. blue spruce

Example Sentences

Straight-trunked, with steepled boughs, prickly needles, and oblong, scaled cones, white spruce can now be found from Newfoundland all the way to the Alaskan Arctic.

From Salon • Feb. 14, 2021

In the northernmost boreal forests of Alaska, where trees and tundra meet, Griffin and his students have installed thirty-six dendrometers on white spruce trees.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 27, 2019

It comes from northern Canada, where botanists in 1903 discovered the first known dwarf clinging to a white spruce — a species that can grow 10 stories tall.

From Seattle Times • May 27, 2018

It comes from northern Canada, where botanists in 1903 discovered the first known dwarf clinging to a white spruce — a species that can grow ten stories tall.

From New York Times • May 21, 2018

Perhaps the lands to the northward of this abrupt line were too low and wet for the growth of the white spruce, the tree which attains the highest latitude on this continent.

From Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea by Franklin, John