cottonwood
noun
Simple meaning
A tiny town in Jackson County, South Dakota.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahtuhnwuudSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɑtənwʊd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A cottonwood hibiscus (Talipariti tiliaceum, syn. Hibiscus tiliaceus), a flowering shrub or tree in the mallow family.
Several species of trees endemic to New Zealand.
A tiny town in Jackson County, South Dakota.
A ghost town in Yolo County, California.
Populus sect. Aigeiros, a taxonomic section of the poplar genus
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A tiny town in Jackson County, South Dakota.
Used this way, cottonwood is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
North American poplar with large rounded scalloped leaves and brownish bark and wood.
A common poplar of eastern and central United States.
North American poplar with large rounded scalloped leaves and brownish bark and wood.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.