noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A large tree, Ochroma pyramidale, native to tropical America, with wood that is very light in weight. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   forest tree of lowland Central America having a strong very light wood; used for making floats and rafts and in crafts wordnet
3. 3
   The wood of this tree. uncountable
4. 4
   strong lightweight wood of the balsa tree used especially for floats wordnet
5. 5
   A raft or float, used principally on the Pacific coast of South America. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

balsa woodbobboombuoycorkebony

Example

More examples

"You can make a glider out of balsa wood."

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish balsa, from Paleo-Hispanic, probably Basque [Term?] or Iberian [Term?]. Not related to balsam.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.