sweet gum

noun

1

: a North American tree (Liquidambar styraciflua of the family Altingiaceae, the sweet gum family) of the witch-hazel family with palmately lobed glossy green leaves, corky twigs, a round spiny brown fruit cluster, and hard wood

2

: the smooth reddish-brown wood of the sweet gum

Illustration of sweet gum

• sweet gum 1

Examples of sweet gum in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Shiitake mushrooms grow best on oak, but other hardwoods such as elm, sweet gum, maple, and alder also work well. —Rita Pelczar, Better Homes & Gardens, 13 July 2024

Overhead some osprey, a hawk and a bald eagle glided among the nearby tupelo, sweet gum and oak-hackberry forest trees. —Ricky Carioti, Washington Post, 5 July 2024

Now all that remains in his yard is the treehouse, nestled within a triangle of sweet gum trees planted in the 1940s. —Daryl James, Orange County Register, 1 May 2024

Large flocks of American robins filled the large sweet gum trees, some singing while others uttered their laughing-like call. —Taylor Piephoff, Charlotte Observer, 31 Jan. 2024

On our first trip to England in 2006, my wife and I discovered by accident a sweet gum tree growing not far from our bed-and-breakfast in Kensington, in west London. —John Kelly, Washington Post, 2 Dec. 2023

Things can go sideways when the leaves are damp; if there is plentiful debris mixed with the leaves, such as pine needles, acorns, sweet gum seed pods, locust seed pods, acorns, and twigs; or if the wind is either steady and unfavorable or shifts around a lot. —Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 10 July 2023

Otherwise, shade-tolerant plants, like red maple and sweet gum, outcompete the local species. —Jamie Dickman, Popular Science, 14 June 2023

They’re also being planted alongside native trees like sweet gum, tulip trees and bald cypress, to avoid genetically identical stands of trees known as monocultures; non-engineered poplars are being planted as experimental controls. —Gabriel Popkin Audra Melton, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1700, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

sweet gum

noun

: a North American tree that has lobed leaves, hard wood, and a long-stemmed woody round fruit

also : its wood

Medical Definition

sweet gum

noun

: a North American tree of the genus Liquidambar (L. styraciflua) with a round spiny brown fruit cluster and an inner bark that is the source of American storax