Cedar

How to spell cedar

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cedar

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cedar mean?

1. nounA tall evergreen coniferous tree, or its fragrant reddish wood, valued for resisting rot and insects.

Cedar in a sentence

• The old chest was lined with cedar to keep moths away from the woollen blankets.

• A tall cedar shaded the corner of the garden all summer.

Where does cedar come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Cedar comes from the Greek word kedros, which named a fragrant, resinous evergreen tree prized in the ancient Mediterranean for its scented, rot-resistant wood. The Greek term passed into Latin as cedrus, keeping the same meaning, and from there it travelled through Old French before settling into English by around the 1100s. Early English writers used it especially for the famous cedars of Lebanon mentioned throughout the Bible, trees whose timber was used to build temples and ships. Over time the name was extended to other aromatic, durable softwoods, including the cedar used today for chests, fences, and pencils. The spelling stays close to the Latin cedrus, which is why the word keeps its single 'd' and ends in '-ar' rather than the '-er' that an English speaker might expect from the sound.

How the word is built

• cedar (from Latin cedrus, from Greek kedros: a resinous evergreen tree)