Vocabulary     

What does oak mean?

Definitions for oak
oʊkoak

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word oak.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. oaknoun

    the hard durable wood of any oak; used especially for furniture and flooring

  2. oak, oak treenoun

    a deciduous tree of the genus Quercus; has acorns and lobed leaves

    "great oaks grow from little acorns"

Wiktionary

  1. oaknoun

    An oak tree.

  2. oaknoun

    The wood of the oak.

  3. oakadjective

    (colour) of a rich brown colour, like that of oak wood.

  4. Etymology: ook, from ac, from aiks (compare Scots aik, iik, eik, Eiche), from eiḱ or *eiǵ- (compare aesculus 'Durmast oak', ąžuolas 'oak', enjë 'juniper, yew', aigilōps 'Turkey oak').

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. OAKnoun

    The oak-tree hath male flowers, or katkins, which consist of a great number of small slender threads. The embryos, which produced at remote distances from these on the same tree, do afterwards become acorns, which are produced in hard scaly cups: the leaves are sinuated. The species are five. Philip Miller

    Etymology: ac, æc , Saxon; which, says Stephen Skinner, to shew how easy it is to play the fool, under a shew of literature and deep researches, I will, for the diversion of my reader, derive from ὀιϰος, a house; the oak being the best timber for building. Stephen Skinner seems to have had Franciscus Junius in his thoughts, who on this very word has shewn his usual fondness for Greek etymology, by a derivation more ridiculous than that by which Stephen Skinner has ridiculed him. Ac or oak, says the grave critick, signified among the Saxons, like robur among the Latins, not only an oak but strength, and may be well enough derived, non incommode deduci potest, from ἀλϰὴ, strength; by taking the three first letters and then sinking the λ, as is not uncommon.

    He return’d with his brows bound with oak. William Shakespeare.

    He lay along
    Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
    Upon the brook that brawls along this wood. William Shakespeare.

    No tree beareth so many bastard fruits as the oak: for besides the acorns, it beareth galls, oak apples, oak nuts, which are inflammable, and oak berries, sticking close to the body of the tree without stalk. Francis Bacon, Nat. History.

    The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,
    Shoots rising up and spreads by slow degrees:
    Three centuries he grows, and three he stays
    Supreme in state; and in three more decays. Dry.

    An oak growing from a plant to a great tree, and then lopped, is still the same oak. John Locke.

    A light earthy, stony, and sparry matter, incrusted and affixed to oak leaves. John Woodward, on Foss.

    In the days of every grove, river, fountain, and oak tree, were thought to have their peculiar deities. Odyss.

    Let India boast her plants, nor envy we
    The weeping amber and the balmy tree,
    While by our oaks the precious loads are born,
    And realms commanded which those trees adorn. Alexander Pope.

Wikipedia

  1. Oak

    An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus (;; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus (stone oaks), as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta (silky oaks) and the Casuarinaceae (she-oaks). The genus Quercus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and North Africa. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, while Mexico has 160 species of which 109 are endemic. The second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobate margins in many species; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with smooth margins. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring. In spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers (in the form of catkins) and small female flowers, meaning that the trees are monoecious. The fruit is a nut called an acorn or oak nut borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule; each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three) and takes 6–18 months to mature, depending on their species. The acorns and leaves contain tannic acid, which helps to guard from fungi and insects. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group and instead are dispersed across the genus.

ChatGPT

  1. oak

    Oak is a type of large deciduous or evergreen tree belonging to the genus Quercus, within the beech family, Fagaceae. They are native to the northern hemisphere, and they are known for their hard, durable wood, their size and longevity, and their acorns, which are the tree's fruit. There are around 600 species of oak, including both trees and shrubs. Oak trees are also symbolic in many cultures, often representing strength and endurance.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Oaknoun

    any tree or shrub of the genus Quercus. The oaks have alternate leaves, often variously lobed, and staminate flowers in catkins. The fruit is a smooth nut, called an acorn, which is more or less inclosed in a scaly involucre called the cup or cupule. There are now recognized about three hundred species, of which nearly fifty occur in the United States, the rest in Europe, Asia, and the other parts of North America, a very few barely reaching the northern parts of South America and Africa. Many of the oaks form forest trees of grand proportions and live many centuries. The wood is usually hard and tough, and provided with conspicuous medullary rays, forming the silver grain

  2. Oaknoun

    the strong wood or timber of the oak

  3. Etymology: [OE. oke, ok, ak, AS. c; akin to D. eik, G. eiche, OHG. eih, Icel. eik, Sw. ek, Dan. eeg.]

Wikidata

  1. Oak

    An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus, having approximately 600 extant species. The common name "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus. The genus is native to the Northern Hemisphere, and includes deciduous and evergreen species extending from cool temperate to tropical latitudes in Asia and the Americas. The center of endemism is regarded as North America, particularly Mexico. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobed margins in many species; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with smooth margins. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring. The flowers are catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule; each acorn contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature, depending on species. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group and instead are dispersed across the genus.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Oak

    ōk, n. a tree of about 300 species, the most famous the British oak, valued for its timber in shipbuilding, &c.—ns. Oak′-app′le, a spongy substance on the leaves of the oak, caused by insects—also Oak′leaf-gall; Oak′-bark, the bark of some species of oak used in tanning.—adjs. Oak′-cleav′ing (Shak.), cleaving oaks; Oak′en, consisting or made of oak.—ns. Oak′-gall, a gall produced on the oak; Oak′-leath′er, a fungus mycelium in the fissures of old oaks; Oak′ling, a young oak; Oak′-pā′per, paper for wall-hangings veined like oak.—adj. Oak′y, like oak, firm.—Oak-apple Day, the 29th of May, the anniversary of the Restoration in 1660, when country boys used to wear oak-apples in commemoration of Charles II. skulking in the branches of an oak (the Royal Oak) from Cromwell's troopers after Worcester.—Sport one's oak, in English university slang, to signify that one does not wish visitors by closing the outer door of one's rooms; The Oaks, one of the three great English races—for mares—the others being the Derby and St Leger. [A.S. ác; Ice. eik, Ger. eiche.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. oak

    Quercus, the valuable monarch of the woods. "Hearts of oak are our ships," as the old song says.

Editors Contribution

  1. oak

    A type of cultivar, plant, shrub and tree.

    The oak trees are a valuable resource worldwide and are grown for their wood and fruit.


    Submitted by MaryC on May 21, 2016  

Suggested Resources

  1. oak

    The oak symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the oak symbol and its characteristic.

  2. OAK

    What does OAK stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the OAK acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. OAK

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Oak is ranked #23019 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Oak surname appeared 1,110 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Oak.

    67.6% or 751 total occurrences were White.
    25.5% or 283 total occurrences were Asian.
    3% or 34 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    2.4% or 27 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    0.9% or 10 total occurrences were Black.
    0.4% or 5 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'oak' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4835

  2. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'oak' in Nouns Frequency: #1909

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Anagrams for oak »

  1. koa

  2. oka

  3. Oka

  4. ako

How to pronounce oak?

How to say oak in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of oak in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of oak in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of oak in a Sentence

  1. Christopher Ervin:

    Cars were peeling out on Gwynn Oak and racing back through the Shop Rite parking lot.

  2. Joni Ernst:

    I've come a long way from Red Oak [Iowa] to Washington, D.C..

  3. Steve Tyler:

    Around here, the horizon is about 100 yards away and youre looking at a tall oak tree.

  4. John Giedraitis:

    So right away we dug up some of the soil and took some tissue samples, set it off to the laboratory, a week or two later, we got the results back that Treaty Oak had been poisoned.

  5. James Russell Lowell:

    In creating, the only hard thing is to begin a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak.

more sentences »

Popularity rank by frequency of use

oak#1#3619#10000

References

Translations for oak

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"oak." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 Sep. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/oak>.

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