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tree

/tɹiː/
nounverb

TREE meaning: a tall woody plant with a trunk and branches. The four-letter word scores 4 points in Scrabble.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Noun 4 meanings

  1. A perennial woody plant taller and larger than a shrub with a wooden trunk and, at some distance from the ground, having leaves and branches.

    “Hyperion is the tallest living tree in the world.”

  2. Any other plant (such as a large shrub or herb) that is reminiscent of the above in form and size.

    “The banana tree is a tall perennial herb: its trunk is not woody.”

  3. An object made from a tree trunk and having multiple hooks or storage platforms.

    “He had the choice of buying a scratching post or a cat tree.”

  4. A device used to hold or stretch a shoe open.

    “He put a shoe tree in each of his shoes.”

Verb 4 meanings

  1. To chase (an animal or person) up a tree.

    “The dog treed the cat.”

  2. To place in a tree.

    “Black bears can tree their cubs for protection, but grizzly bears cannot.”

  3. To place upon a shoe tree; to fit with a shoe tree; to stretch upon a shoe tree.

    “to tree a boot”

  4. To take refuge in a tree.

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

PIE word *dóru From Middle English trau, tre, tree, treo, treou, trew, trewe, troe, trouȝh, trouȝgh, trow, trowe, from Old English trēo, trēow, trēu, trīo, trīow, trȳw (“tree; wood; forest; beam, cudgel, log; cross”), from Proto-West Germanic *treu, from Proto-Germanic *trewą (“tree”), from pre-Germanic *dréwom, thematic e-grade derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree”).

Similar and opposite words

Similar
saplingseedling

TREE is a plant, but also a shoe-stretching form, a hook-covered stand and, in computing, a branching structure. It ranks 1,466th in English frequency with a count of 49,017. Its short, vowel-heavy build gives it two anagrams and twenty neighbours.

TREE by the numbers

  • Letters: E, E, R and T, all worth 1 point.
  • Base Scrabble value: 4 points.
  • Two anagrams: RETE and TEER.
  • 20 one-letter neighbours, among them FREE, TRUE, THEE, TREK and TREY.
  • About 13 percent of four-letter words end in E.

What can TREE mean besides the plant?

A perennial woody plant is the main sense, and the word stretches to large shrubs that look tree-like. A shoe tree holds a shoe open and a clothes tree is a stand with hooks.

The computing meaning, a branching hierarchy of files or decisions, is the one many people now use daily. A family tree and a decision tree borrow the same branching shape.

None of these senses changes how TREE plays. A word with this many uses is also one that no opponent will challenge, so you can drop it down without worry.

Which neighbours are worth remembering?

FREE and TRUE are the ones to remember, because both are common words. THEE and TREK come next, and TREY, a three on dice or cards, is rarer. Spellings such as TRYE, TREF and DREE are far less familiar.

The two anagrams are RETE and TEER, both scoring 4 points, the same as TREE itself. RETE is a network of vessels, and TEER is the rarer of the pair. Choose RETE if you want to risk fewer challenges from opponents.

Rhyme note

Note

THREE, FREE and AGREE all rhyme with TREE, but only FREE is a one-letter neighbour. The others add letters, so they do not hook onto it.

Rhymes with tree

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest

Questions people ask

Is tree a valid Scrabble word?
Yes. TREE is accepted in Collins, NWL2023 and ENABLE. Its four tiles are worth 1 point each, which makes a 4-point base score. Placing it on a triple-word square multiplies that total by three to give 12.
What are the anagrams of tree?
TREE has two anagrams: RETE and TEER. RETE means a network or mesh, especially of blood vessels, and TEER is a rarer spelling. Both use the letters E, E, R and T and score 4 points.
How many words are one letter away from tree?
Twenty words differ from TREE by a single letter, including FREE, TRUE, THEE, TREK and TREY. Most of the rest are rare spellings such as TRYE and TREF, so the everyday set is much smaller.

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