: any of a genus (Quercus) of trees or shrubs of the beech family that produce acorns
also: any of various plants related to or resembling the oaks
b
: the tough hard durable wood of an oak tree
2
: the leaves of an oak used as decoration
Illustration of oak
1 acorn
2 leaf
Examples of oak in a Sentence
Tall oaks line the street.
The table is solid oak.
The cabinets are made of oak.
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First, where the classic Boulevardier recruits the broad oaky shoulders of bourbon or rye for its base, Taylor substituted in apple brandy, which is similarly barrel aged but is distilled from apples instead of corn or rye, giving a core fruity quality beneath the familiar oak.—Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 18 Oct. 2025 In 2006, protestors occupied a grove of oak trees slated to be cut down for the construction of a new athletic center.—Austin Meek, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2025 Drawing on Laurent Tillon’s Being an Oak, Paul explores how a single oak grows for 250 years, and argues that enduring companies do the same.—Big Think, 16 Oct. 2025 There are some Southern trees that never seem to stop dripping sap — pine trees, river birch, maples, and oaks.—Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 15 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for oak
Word History
Etymology
Middle English ook, oke, going back to Old English āc, going back to Germanic *eik- (whence also Old Frisian ēk "oak," Old Saxon ēc, Old High German eih, eihha, Old Norse eik), of obscure origin
Note:
Old English āc is a feminine root noun (dative singular and nominative plural ǣc), though forms leveled to other declensions with umlaut are already evident. Germanic *eik- has been compared with the Greek words aigílōps, a name in Theophrastus for a species of oak (Quercus macrolepis?), and krátaigos, a species of hawthorn (also in Theophrastus), but interpretation of the conjoined elements of these words is conjectural (lṓpē is not actually attested in the sense "cork" or "bark"). The derivation of Latin aesculus "a species of oak (Quercus petraea?)" is obscure. The Lithuanian dialect forms áižuols and áužuolas "oak," superficially comparable, are hypercorrections of ą́žuolas, which is very unlikely to be related to *eik- (cf. Old Prussian ansonis = German eche in the Elbing Vocabulary).
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of oak was
before the 12th century
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