Homophones

• would

Noun

Singular wood

Plural countable and uncountable; plural woods

wood (countable and uncountable; plural woods)

1. (uncountable) The substance making up the central part of the trunk and branches of a tree. Used as a material for construction, to manufacture various items, etc. or as fuel.
2. (countable) As the previous but referring to wood of a particular species.

   Teak is much used for outdoor benches, but a number of other woods are also suitable, such as ipé, redwood, etc.

3. (uncountable) A forested or wooded area, most often used in the plural.

   He got lost in the woods beyond Seattle.

4. Firewood.
5. (countable) (golf) A type of golf club, the head of which was traditionally made of wood.
6. (music) A woodwind instrument.
7. (slang) An erection.

Derived terms

• bentwood
• greasewood
• hardwood
• heartwood
• kingwood
• knock on wood
• ironwood
• olivewood
• out of the woods
• purplewood

• softwood
• whitewood
• woodchopper
• woodcock
• wooded
• wooden
• woodpecker
• woody

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense it is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees (and other woody plants). In a living tree it conducts water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues, and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach large sizes or to stand up for themselves. However, wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber.

People have used wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks, and paper. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in some species by dendrochronology to make inferences about when a wooden object was created. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the prevailing climate at that time.

Formation

Wood, in the strict sense, is yielded by trees, which increase in diameter by the formation, between the existing wood and the inner bark, of new woody layers which envelop the entire stem, living branches, and roots. Technically this is known as secondary growth; it is the result of cell division in the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem, and subsequent expansion of the new cells.