Meaning & use
vast forests
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Meanings
phraseplural
Extremely large areas of land thickly covered with trees, usually spoken of as impressive or hard to imagine in size.
Grammar: The phrase is plural, so it goes with a plural verb: vast forests cover the region. For one area of trees, use 'a vast forest'.
Patterns
- vast forests of something
- vast forests stretch across something
- protect vast forests
Vast forests stretch for hundreds of miles along the northern border.
Satellite images show that vast forests have been cut down since the 1990s.
They flew over vast forests that seemed to have no end.
phrasepluralfigurative
A very great number or amount of something, used figuratively as if the quantity were a huge wood.
Grammar: Used figuratively, often in the pattern 'vast forests of something' where the something is not trees.
Patterns
- vast forests of something
The report was buried in vast forests of paperwork.
Her early notebooks contain vast forests of ideas, most of them unfinished.
Common combinations
- vast forests stretch across
- Vast forests stretch across the whole province.
- dense vast forests
- Dense, vast forests make the area hard to explore.
- tropical vast forests
- Tropical vast forests are disappearing at an alarming rate.
- protect vast forests
- New laws aim to protect vast forests from illegal logging.
- vast forests of pine
- Vast forests of pine cover the hills above the town.
Synonyms and how they differ
- huge forests
- 'Huge' also means very big, but it sounds more everyday and less grand than 'vast'.
- immense forests
- 'Immense' is close to 'vast' and often suggests something so big it is hard to measure.
- boundless forests
- 'Boundless' stresses that you cannot see where the forests end, which is stronger and more literary than 'vast'.
Opposites
Word family
- vast adjective
- extremely large in size, amount, or extent.
- vastly adverb
- to a very great degree; used before adjectives such as 'different' or 'improved'.
- vastness noun
- the quality of being extremely large, often used of space or the sea.
- forest noun
- a large area covered mainly with trees.
- forested adjective
- covered with trees; used of land, as in 'a heavily forested region'.
Commonly confused: vast forests or forest? vast forests or wasteland?
vast forests vs forest
'Forest' is the countable noun for one area of trees; 'vast forests' is that noun made plural and described as extremely large.
vast forests vs wasteland
'Wasteland' means empty, unusable land, the opposite kind of landscape; do not confuse it with 'vast land', which simply means very large land.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Vast forests' is plural, so it needs the plural verb 'cover'. Option A uses a singular verb, option B wrongly puts 'a' before a plural noun, and option D uses the singular 'forest' with a plural verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “vast forests”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.