rosewood
noun
Simple meaning
The fragrant wood of Dalbergia nigra, a Brazilian tree in the legume family, which has a sweet smell.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rohzwuudSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹoʊzwʊd
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
The fragrant wood of Dalbergia nigra, a Brazilian tree in the legume family, which has a sweet smell.
Any of several dozen woods, resembling that of Dalbergia nigra in some respect.
The wood of a South American tree, Aniba rosaeodora, in the laurel family, with fragrant wood from which an essential oil is distilled.
Wood and plant of Pterocarpus spp., for example African rosewood or mukula or Burmese rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus, syn. Pterocarpus santalinus).
An affluent residential neighborhood of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The fragrant wood of Dalbergia nigra, a Brazilian tree in the legume family, which has a sweet smell.
Used this way, rosewood is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in family or home contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Family/home
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
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.
Any of those hardwood trees of the genus Dalbergia that yield rosewood--valuable cabinet woods of a dark red or purplish color streaked and variegated with black.
Tree of India and Burma yielding a wood resembling mahogany.
East Indian tree having a useful dark purple wood.
East Indian tree having a useful dark purple wood.
Central American tree yielding a valuable dark streaked rosewood.
East Indian tree having a useful dark purple wood.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “rosewood” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.