Meaning & use
pine cone or pinecone
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Meanings
nouncountable
The hard, woody, egg-shaped fruit of a pine tree, made of overlapping scales that hold the seeds.
Grammar: Countable: one pine cone, two pine cones; the solid spelling pinecone is also common, especially in American English.
Patterns
- a pine cone falls from a tree
- collect pine cones
- a pile of pine cones
We gathered pine cones in the woods and used them to light the fire.
A pine cone dropped from the branch and landed right beside her.
Squirrels pull the seeds out from between the scales of a pine cone.
nouncountable
A decoration or craft shape made to look like this fruit, often used at Christmas.
Grammar: Countable and often used in the plural when talking about decorations: hang the pine cones on the tree.
Patterns
- hang pine cones on a tree
- decorate something with pine cones
- a pine cone ornament
The children painted pine cones gold and hung them on the tree.
She filled a bowl with pine cones and set it on the table as a winter decoration.
Word forms
| plural | pine cones |
|---|---|
| plural (solid spelling) | pinecones |
Common combinations
- pine cone tree
- The pine cone tree in the yard drops cones all over the path.
- a pine cone wreath
- She made a pine cone wreath for the front door.
- pick up pine cones
- We spent the morning picking up pine cones after the storm.
- a pine cone fall
- Every autumn there is a heavy pine cone fall in these woods.
- a pine cone shape
- The lamp has a pine cone shape and gives a warm light.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cone
- Shorter and more general; use cone when the tree is already clear, and pine cone when you need to say which tree it comes from.
- fir cone
- Looks similar but comes from a fir tree; use it only for that tree, since fir cones usually stand upright on the branch.
Word family
Commonly confused: pine cone or pinecone or pineapple? pine cone or pinecone or ice cream cone?
pine cone or pinecone vs pineapple
A tropical fruit with rough skin; it only shares the first part of the spelling, not the meaning.
pine cone or pinecone vs ice cream cone
An edible wafer shape for holding ice cream; the word cone is the same, but the thing is completely different.
Practice
Which sentence uses the word correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Pine cones' is a countable noun, so a plural with no article is fine after 'collected'. Option 2 needs a plural or an article, option 3 wrongly mixes 'a' with a plural, and option 4 is singular and so needs 'a' or 'the'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pine cone or pinecone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.