American arborvitae

noun

: an evergreen tree ( Thuja occidentalis) of eastern North America that has a conical or columnar form, reddish-brown bark, flattened branchlets in horizontal planes with closely attached scalelike leaves, and soft, decay-resistant wood and that has numerous ornamental cultivars

called also eastern arborvitae, eastern white cedar, swamp cedar, northern white cedar, white cedar, yellow cedar

compare oriental arborvitae

Word History

First Known Use

1785, in the meaning defined above

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