beech

C2 Topic:Plants & Agriculture

US /biːt͡ʃ/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like bitch /ɪ/ vs /iː/

Freq #27259

Meanings

1

noun
A tree of the genus Fagus having a smooth, light grey trunk, oval, pointed leaves, and many branches.

A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.
2

noun
An aircraft made by Beechcraft.

The company had five Beeches for flying its top executives around.
3

noun
any of several large deciduous trees with rounded spreading crowns and smooth grey bark and small sweet edible triangular nuts enclosed in burs
4

noun
wood of any of various beech trees

Thesaurus

Synonyms

3 noun · any of several large... beech tree

4 noun · wood of any of various... beechwood

Word family

Forms beechen

Derived forms beech-de-merbeechdropsbeechenbeechlikebeechmastbeechnutbeechtreebeechy

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

beech tree
a broad-crowned deciduous tree with smooth gray bark and small triangular nuts

Noun + noun

Simplified etymology

Beech is an Old English word. It is probably related to the ancestral northern European word behind book, possibly because beechwood was used for engraving inscriptions.

Etymology

From Middle English beche, from Old English bēċe, from Proto-West Germanic *bōkijā (“beech”). Doublet of buky. Related to English book.

Topics

Plants & Agriculture

External links

# beech

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /biːt͡ʃ/
**Frequency rank:** 27259

## Meanings
1. A tree of the genus Fagus having a smooth, light grey trunk, oval, pointed leaves, and many branches.
2. An aircraft made by Beechcraft.
3. any of several large deciduous trees with rounded spreading crowns and smooth grey bark and small sweet edible triangular nuts enclosed in burs
4. wood of any of various beech trees

## Examples
- A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.
- The company had five Beeches for flying its top executives around.

## Derived Forms
- beech-de-mer
- beechdrops
- beechen
- beechlike
- beechmast
- beechnut
- beechtree
- beechy

## Etymology
From Middle English beche, from Old English bēċe, from Proto-West Germanic *bōkijā (“beech”). Doublet of buky. Related to English book.

## Topics
- Plants & Agriculture

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