timber
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
timberSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɪmbɚ
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
uncountable
Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.
outside CanadaUSuncountable
The wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
outside CanadaUSuncountable
Wood that has been pre-cut and is ready for use in construction.
countable
A heavy wooden beam, generally a whole log that has been squared off and used to provide heavy support for something such as a roof.
Material for any structure.
verb
transitive
To fit with timbers.
transitive
To surmount as a timber does.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.
Used this way, timber 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 timber
- “The carpenter used rough timber to build the frame of the house.”noun
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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 wolf with a brindled grey coat living in forested northern regions of North America.
Any tree that is valued as a source of lumber or timber.
Widely distributed in rugged ground of eastern United States.
Line marking the upper limit of tree growth in mountains or northern latitudes.
A hitch used to secure a rope to a log or spar.
Large bamboo having thick-walled culms.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood
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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.