Softwood

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The wood from any gymnosperm, without regard to its softness. uncountable

    "The bodies are sheeted in softwood, a double layer of ⅝-in. boards on the quarters, with a single thickness lining inside the steel ends."

  2. 2
    wood that is easy to saw (from conifers such as pine or fir) wordnet
  3. 3
    Wood of this kind, but limited to those that are commercial timbers. countable
  4. 4
    The tree or tree species that yields this wood. countable

    "SYP is a softwood, but it is harder than many hardwoods."

  5. 5
    Any commercial timber. uncountable

    "You should have used softwood for the frame of this shed, instead of overbuilding it like this."

Synonyms

All synonyms
arboraryarborealarboreousarborescentarboresquearborical

Example

More examples

"In woodworking, we classify wood as hardwood, softwood or exotic wood."

Etymology

From soft + wood.

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