Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🌲 A small bonsai 🪴 A fake bonsai
ming tree

ming tree

9.3
A small evergreen tree or bush trained to have flat tops and uneven branches and grown in a pot
  • noun
translation icon : bonsái
  • She carefully pruned her ming tree to maintain its unique, flat-topped shape.

Examples

  • The antique dealer displayed a beautiful ming tree in a ceramic pot on the windowsill.

  • Collectors value an old ming tree for its intricate branches and historical significance.

  • The ming tree in my garden is beautifully shaped.

  • I bought a ming tree for my living room.

  • The antique dealer displayed a beautiful ming tree in a ceramic pot on the windowsill.

  • She carefully pruned her ming tree to maintain its unique, flat-topped shape.

  • Collectors value an old ming tree for its intricate branches and historical significance.

Synonyms

tree
vsming tree
∞ 1.0

A tall plant with a single trunk and many branches and leaves

is a deliberately dwarfed container plant with flat topped asymmetrical branches
bonsai
vsming tree
10 6.9

A small tree or bush grown in a shallow pot and carefully shaped

focuses on a specific trained flat topped asymmetrical branch shape
treelet
vsming tree
6.8

A small tree that is not fully grown or a type that stays short

emphasizes deliberate dwarfing and shaping in a container rather than natural small size

How Small

bonsai
10 6.9
ming tree
9.3
potted
9 2.8
garden plant
1 1.0

Surface Forms

ming tree singular
ming trees plural

Morphology

Ming + tree

Although a B1 learner may know 'Ming' as a dynasty and 'tree' as a plant, those constituents do not transparently yield the sense 'an artificial miniature bonsai-like decorative plant.' The term appears lexicalized or product/cultural-specific rather than compositionally derived, so its meaning would not be predictable without prior exposure or extra cultural knowledge.

Etymology

Ming tree may come from the Ming dynasty in China, where gardeners and artists trained small trees in pots to make them look like tiny, natural landscapes. So the image of a small, carefully shaped tree explains why ming tree means a dwarfed, potted 'decorative' tree today.