Meaning & use
tree
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Meanings
nouncountable
A tall plant with a thick woody trunk that grows branches and leaves high above the ground and lives for many years.
Grammar: Countable: one tree, many trees.
Patterns
- plant a tree
- climb a tree
- a tree in something
We planted an apple tree in the back yard last spring.
The children climbed the old oak tree to build a lookout.
A fallen tree blocked the road after the storm.
nouncountablecomputingmathematics
A diagram or data structure that starts from one point and splits into branches, used to show how things are related or organized.
Grammar: Often combined with another noun: family tree, decision tree, file tree.
Patterns
- a tree of something
- a family tree
She traced her ancestors back four generations on the family tree.
The program stores folders as a tree, with one root folder at the top.
A decision tree helps the doctor narrow down the likely causes.
nouncountableinformal
A Christmas tree, especially the decorated one kept indoors during the holiday.
Grammar: In December the tree often means the Christmas tree without any other word.
Patterns
- put up the tree
- decorate the tree
We put up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.
The cat knocked over the tree twice this week.
Presents were piled under the tree by Christmas Eve.
Word forms
| plural | trees |
|---|
Common combinations
- plant a tree
- The town asked every household to plant a tree.
- cut down a tree
- They had to cut down a tree that was leaning toward the house.
- family tree
- Her family tree includes sailors from three countries.
- shade tree
- A large shade tree kept the porch cool.
- decision tree
- The analyst built a decision tree to predict which customers would leave.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sapling
- A sapling is a young, thin tree, so it fits only when the tree is small and recently planted.
- shrub
- A shrub is a woody plant with several stems and no single trunk, so it is smaller than a tree.
- hierarchy
- Hierarchy replaces tree only in the diagram sense, and it focuses on ranking rather than on branching shape.
Word family
- treetop noun
- the highest branches of a tree
- tree-lined adjective
- having trees along both sides, as of a street
- treeless adjective
- having no trees
- treehouse noun
- a small structure built among tree branches
Commonly confused: tree or three?
tree vs three
Three is the number 3. Many learners say tree for three because the th sound is hard, so practise the difference.
Practice
Which sentence uses tree in its computing sense?
Choose one answer.
A tree of folders with a root is a branching data structure. The other options all mean a plant or a holiday tree.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tree”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.