white spruce

noun

1

: any of several spruces

especially : a widely distributed spruce (Picea glauca) of coniferous forests of Canada and the northern U.S. that has short stiff blue-green needles and slender cones see cone illustration

2

: the wood of a white spruce

especially : the light pale tough straight-grained wood of the common white spruce (Picea glauca) used especially for construction and as a source of paper pulp

Examples of white spruce in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Boston Common Tree Lighting The Boston Common tree lighting is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Nova Scotia gifted the 45-foot white spruce to Boston as part of an annual tradition to thank the city for its help after the 1917 Halifax explosion. —Neal Riley, CBS News, 24 Nov. 2025

The officials 2025 Christmas tree, a 45-foot-tall white spruce nominated by locals Ronald and Claire Feener of Lunenburg County in Nova Scotia, landed in its home for the season in the Boston Common just after 11 a.m. Tuesday to herald the holiday season. —Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald, 19 Nov. 2025

Wind through the famous spiral tunnel of Cathedral Mountain near Banff before taking in the glacial turquoise waters of Lake Louise, flanked by forests of pine, white spruce, and Rocky Mountain Douglas firs. —Nicole Edenedo, AFAR Media, 26 Aug. 2025

In its caterpillar form, the spruce budworm eats away at the needles of white spruce and balsam fir. —Jimmy Lovrien, Twin Cities, 23 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1731, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for white spruce

• disabuse
• introduce
• reproduce
• abstruse
• abuse
• adduce
• atreus
• caboose
• cayuse
• conduce
• deduce
• diffuse