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maple

Pronunciation: /ˈmeɪpl̩/

The English word “maple” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any member of any species of genus Acer, characterized by (usually) palmate, five-lobed leaves and winged seeds, and often grown for syrup or wood
  2. A small tree (Acer campestre), known as the common maple, field maple, or hedge maple, which has palmate leaves with five lobes and winged seeds, and is chiefly native to East Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America.
  3. Often preceded by a descriptive word: a tree of the genus Acer; especially the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) native to North America which has brightly colored autumn foliage and is the primary source of maple syrup.
  4. Chiefly preceded by a descriptive word: a tree of a genus other than Acer which has an appearance or wood similar to an Acer tree.
  5. Wood of an Acer tree, valued for its attractive appearance and hardness; also, similar wood from a tree of a genus other than Acer; (countable) a particular type of such wood.
  6. The light-brown color of the wood of a maple tree (etymology 1, noun sense 3).
  7. The flavor of maple syrup made from the sap of a maple tree, or an imitation of that flavor.
  8. Synonym of mapau (“any of several trees of New Zealand, especially in the genus Myrsine”).

adjective

  1. Of the light-brown colour of the wood of a maple tree (etymology 1, noun sense 3).
  2. Of the flavour of, or made with, maple syrup.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English mapel (“tree of species Acer campestre, sole native maple of the British Isles); wood of such a tree; artistic representation of a maple leaf; a beam, pole, stake (?)”), from Old English *mapul (attested in mapulder (“maple tree”), mapultrēow (“maple tree”), etc.), from Proto-West Germanic *mapul (“maple tree”), from Proto-Germanic *mapulaz; further…

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