Sapling

//ˈsæplɪŋ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A young tree, larger than a seedling.
  2. 2
    young tree wordnet
  3. 3
    A youngster, especially a male nearing maturity. figuratively

Synonyms

All synonyms
adolescentbabyboyboychildconiferevergreen

Example

More examples

"Thither I drew, and strove with eager hold / a green-leaved sapling from the soil to tear, / to shade with boughs the altars, when behold / a portent, weird to see and wondrous to unfold!"

Etymology

From Middle English saplyng, seplyng, sapling, equivalent to sap + -ling.

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