white poplar

American  

noun

1. Also called abele.  an Old World poplar, Populus alba, widely cultivated in the U.S., having the underside of the leaves covered with a dense silvery-white down.

2. the soft, straight-grained wood of this tree.

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white poplar British  

noun

1. Also called: abele.  a Eurasian salicaceous tree, Populus alba, having leaves covered with dense silvery-white hairs

2. another name for tulipwood

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Etymology

Origin of white poplar

An Americanism dating back to 1765–75

Example Sentences

Chinese white-birch plywood sandwiches sheets of white poplar wood between outer layers of birch veneer, which is peeled from logs that are typically harvested in Siberian forests.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026

The arches over the doors were painted with black cows, white poplar trees, and owls.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Come, Bind your hair with white poplar, Let your lips be sweet, Wild roses of Paestum.

From Some Imagist Poets, 1916 An Annual Anthology by Aldington, Richard

It was well timbered, in some places, with the finest white poplar I had yet seen.

From Through the Mackenzie Basin A Narrative of the Athabasca and Peace River Treaty Expedition of 1899 by Mair, Charles

The Athabaska below Fort MacMurray is a noble stream, one-third of a mile wide, deep, steady, unmarred; the banks are covered with unbroken virginal forests of tall white poplar, balsam poplar, spruce, and birch.

From The Arctic Prairies : a Canoe-Journey of 2,000 Miles in Search of the Caribou; Being the Account of a Voyage to the Region North of Aylemer Lake by Seton, Ernest Thompson