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apple tree

apple tree

21 1.0
A tree that grows round sweet fruits called apples
  • noun
  • /ˈæpəl tri/
translation icon : manzano
  • The farmer planted several apple trees in the orchard to increase his harvest.

There's a black bear in the apple tree and he won't come down.

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Examples

  • Since the war of '79, they always met at the apple tree to talk.

    Academic text (2007)
  • So there's the apple tree, a little bit more mature.

  • I thought I seen an apple tree in the valley.

  • Oh yeah, these are definitely apple trees.

  • You were going to have a party... -...under the apple tree.

  • We had an apple tree in the backyard.

  • Yeah, sure, he invented physics, but he was surprised when an apple tree fell on his head while he was sitting under an apple tree.

  • You live under an apple tree and the apple tree produces so many apples you don't know what to do.

  • Halfway between the barn and the apple tree, the snow was piled in a deep drift.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • "Two years ago," says Sheffer, "we lost 400 apple trees to fire blight."

    Academic text (1999)

Synonyms

apple
vsapple tree
87 1.0

A tree that grows round fruit people eat

is the specific common term for the cultivated fruit-bearing plant
Malus pumila
vsapple tree
  • Specialized
6.5

A tree that grows rounded, edible fruits called apples

is the common general term rather than the scientific name
orchard apple tree
vsapple tree
2.1

A tree grown for its apples that people eat

is the broader garden or wild plant term not limited to commercial growing
genus Malus
vsapple tree
  • Specialized
8.6

A group of trees that includes apple and crabapple trees

is a single plant type rather than the broader group of related plants

How Big

apple tree
21 1.0
appling
  • Archaic
9.8

Surface Forms

apple tree singular
apple trees plural

Morphology

apple + tree

The meaning 'a tree that produces apples' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'apple' and 'tree'—the compound names the type of tree by its fruit. This simple noun–noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic naming pattern and would be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Apple tree is a two-word name that shows the fruit and the plant: apple is the fruit and tree is the plant that grows it. Imagine a tree full of round, red apples, and that clear picture explains why it means 'a tree that grows apples'.