live oak

\ ˈlīv-

How to pronounce live oak (audio)

\

Definition of live oak

: any of several American evergreen oaks: such as

a : a medium-sized oak (Quercus virginiana) of southeastern North America often cultivated as a shelter and shade tree and noted for its extremely hard tough durable wood

b : any of several oaks of the western U.S. with evergreen foliage and hard durable wood

Examples of live oak in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web What looks like a set piece from Pan's Labyrinth is actually a massive and ancient Southern live oak tree—some six stories tall, between 300 and 400 years old, and a 25-minute drive from downtown Charleston, on Johns Island. — Caitlin Morton, Condé Nast Traveler, "42 Places That Are Straight Out of Fairy Tales," 27 Aug. 2020 Listing agent Becky Oliver said one of her favorite aspects of the home is its curb appeal, noting the symmetry and live oak trees at the front of the property. — Mary Grace Granados, Dallas News, "Take a look at this historic 1920s Swiss Avenue home built by a designer of the Adolphus Hotel," 27 Aug. 2020 Planted in their place were roughly 40 new native plant species, among them California sage brush, mulefat, California walnut, monkey flower, cottonwood, black willow and coast live oak, Majcher said. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "Town and Country resort returns to its mid-century roots — and gets a waterslide," 21 Aug. 2020 Hillside Park is home to many more varieties of flora, including Cuyamaca cypress, California buckwheat, Christmas tree berry and Coast live oak. — Karen Pearlman, San Diego Union-Tribune, "Expanded park space use eyed in El Cajon," 9 Aug. 2020 The former Simi Valley movie ranch features four trails shaded by coast live oak and sycamore trees. — Lisa Boone, Los Angeles Times, "The 15 best places in L.A. to find shade on hot summer days," 24 June 2020 But the beautiful lane, which includes some 50 evenly spaced live oak trees planted across from each other to form a canopy, wasn’t always part of the college. — Michelle Matthews | Mmatthews@al.com, al, "Why this is one of the most beautiful streets in Alabama," 23 June 2020 My live oak trees lost at least half of their leaves in a recent hailstorm. — Neil Sperry, ExpressNews.com, "Neil Sperry: Did nematodes kill these tomato plants?," 18 June 2020 Forget stumps; this baby can probably pull a live oak out of the ground. — cleveland, "Really big rides: Piloting the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD," 30 May 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'live oak.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about live oak

Dictionary Entries near live oak

lively interest

live off/on the fat of the land

Statistics for live oak

Last Updated

5 Sep 2020

Cite this Entry

“Live oak.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/live%20oak. Accessed 20 Sep. 2020.

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

ubiquitous

Listen to the pronunciation of ubiquitous

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Test Your Vocabulary

Homophone Quiz

In order to judge how people felt, the senator's office hired a firm to take a ______.

poal pole
pol poll

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.