araucaria

noun

ar·​au·​car·​ia ˌa-ˌrȯ-ˈka-rē-ə 

ˌer-ȯ-

: any of a genus (Araucaria of the family Araucariaceae, the araucaria family) of South American or Australian coniferous trees that resemble pines and are often grown as ornamentals

especially : monkey puzzle

araucarian

ˌa-ˌrȯ-ˈka-rē-ən 

ˌer-ȯ-

adjective

Examples of araucaria in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Millions of years ago – where the perpetual ice of Antarctica and the dry dust of the Atacama Desert today stretch – lush forests flourished, full of araucaria trees, giant ferns, and vegetation that would seem unimaginable today. —Discover Magazine, 27 June 2025

The park, an oasis of trees like tipa and araucarias, sprawling lawns, and a lake filled with koi — the enormous fish that also fill the waterways of Jardín Japones in Palermo — is teeming with locals reading, painting or working out on Saturdays. —Maria Cramer, New York Times, 18 May 2023

There's a spot about four miles into the Los Lagos Trail, in Chile's Huerquehue National Park, where venerable araucaria trees preside over a primordial rain forest. —Mark Johanson, Travel + Leisure, 27 Nov. 2021

In La Araucanía, home to the Mapuche, Chile’s largest Indigenous group, deep forests are covered by century-old araucaria trees. —Charis McGowan, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 May 2021

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, from Araucānus araucanian (borrowed from Spanish araucano) + -āria -ary entry 1

Note: Genus name introduced by the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita (Paris, 1789), pp. 413-14. Jussieu adapted the name from Juan Ignacio Molinaʼs Saggio sulla storia naturale del Chili (Bologna, 1782): "Il Pehuen, Pinus Araucana … nasce spontaneamente presso gli Araucani, e si coltiva nelle altre parti del Regno" ("The Pehuen, Pinus Araucana … grows naturally near the Araucanians, and is cultivated in the other parts of the country") (p. 182).

First Known Use

1806, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for araucaria

• aquaria
• gregaria
• herbaria
• hysteria
• malaria
• puparia
• rancheria
• area
• ceria
• feria
• varia
• arenaria