Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various mostly needle-leaved or scale-leaved, chiefly evergreen, cone-bearing gymnospermous trees or shrubs of the order Coniferales, such as pines, spruces, and firs.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, a plant producing cones; one of the Coniferæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A tree or shrub bearing cones; one of the order Coniferae, which includes the pine, cypress, and (according to some) the yew.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun botany A plant belonging to the conifers; a cone-bearing seed plant with vascular tissue, usually a tree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any gymnospermous tree or shrub bearing cones

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin cōnifer, cone-bearing : cōnus, cone (from Greek kōnos; see kō- in Indo-European roots) + -fer, -fer.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin conifer (bearing cones), compound of conus (cone) and ferre (to bear)

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Examples

  • The term conifer means "cone bearing" and refers to the fruit of the tree.

    unknown title 2009

  • Originally classified as a conifer, scientists later argued that it was instead a lichen, various types of algae or a fungus.

    Archive 2007-04-01 2007

  • If a tree has cones on it, it's called a conifer and is probably an evergreen.

    unknown title 2009

  • If a tree has cones on it, it's called a conifer and is probably an evergreen.

    unknown title 2009

  • We find a conifer which is almost pyramidal and just about the right height, and I set to work with my ax.

    Christmas on Ganymede and Other Stories Greenberg, Martin H. 1990

  • The magnificent forests there were mixed conifer/hardwood woodlands of great beauty and big paper mills came in there in the 1950s and guaranteed my friends the landowners that there would be more board feet of timber on the then virgin forestlands at the end of their proposed 99 year lease for tree harvesting than at the commencement of the lease.

    Huatulco to Oaxaca City Road Trip 2009

  • The magnificent forests there were mixed conifer/hardwood woodlands of great beauty and big paper mills came in there in the 1950s and guaranteed my friends the landowners that there would be more board feet of timber on the then virgin forestlands at the end of their proposed 99 year lease for tree harvesting than at the commencement of the lease.

    Huatulco to Oaxaca City Road Trip 2009

  • The magnificent forests there were mixed conifer/hardwood woodlands of great beauty and big paper mills came in there in the 1950s and guaranteed my friends the landowners that there would be more board feet of timber on the then virgin forestlands at the end of their proposed 99 year lease for tree harvesting than at the commencement of the lease.

    Huatulco to Oaxaca City Road Trip 2009

  • It is an easy-going, fast-growing deciduous conifer, also known as a Dawn Redwood.

    Jean's Knitting Jean 2009

  • The magnificent forests there were mixed conifer/hardwood woodlands of great beauty and big paper mills came in there in the 1950s and guaranteed my friends the landowners that there would be more board feet of timber on the then virgin forestlands at the end of their proposed 99 year lease for tree harvesting than at the commencement of the lease.

    Huatulco to Oaxaca City Road Trip 2009

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