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willow

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The wood of these trees.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wiloh

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwɪloʊ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The wood of these trees.

  2. cricketcolloquial

    A cricket bat.

  3. A rotating spiked drum used to open and clean cotton heads.

  4. baseballslang1800s

    The baseball bat.

verb

  1. transitive

    To open and cleanse (cotton, flax, wool, etc.) by means of a willow.

  2. intransitive

    To form a shape or move in a way similar to the long, slender branches of a willow.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The wood of these trees.

Used this way, willow 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 willow

  • “A beautiful weeping willow tree grows by the pond in the park.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

willow treewillow creekweeping willowwillow runpussy willowred willowwillow patternwillow warbler

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • willow bellnounCompound term

    Perennial European bellflower with racemose white or blue flowers.

  • willow familynounCompound term

    Two genera of trees or shrubs having hairy catkins: Salix.

  • willow oaknounCompound term

    Medium to large deciduous oak of the eastern United States having long lanceolate leaves and soft strong wood.

  • willow-patternnounCompound term

    Chinaware decorated with a blue Chinese design on a white background depicting a willow tree and often a river.

  • willow treenounCompound term

    Any of numerous deciduous trees and shrubs of the genus Salix.

  • willow asternounCompound term

    A variety of aster.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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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.