lumber
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
luhmberSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlʌmbɚ
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
CanadaUS
The wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
canadaus
Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material.
figurative
Useless or cumbrous material.
verb
intransitive
To move clumsily and heavily; to move slowly.
“The heavy man lumbered across the room.”
transitivewith with
To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on.
To heap together in disorder.
To fill or encumber with lumber.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
Used this way, lumber 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.
More ways to use lumber
- “The heavy man lumbered across the room.”verb
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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.
A short warm outer jacket.
A storeroom in a house where odds and ends can be stored (especially furniture).
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
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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.