rain forest
26
1.6
- noun
- /ˈreɪn ˈfɔrɪst/
:
selva tropical
- We learned that the oldest rain forest in the world lies in Malaysia.
- tropical rain forest
- destruction of rain forests
- world's tropical rain forests
Examples
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The West African region's equatorial rain forest contrasts with the drier habitats of East Africa and South Africa.
Academic text (2011) -
- What happened to the rain forest? - It's being destroyed.
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Next time, you got to come with us to the rain forest.
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Ah, we used to lose ourselves... for days in the rain forest when we were young.
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In other news, a tribute will be held tomorrow... for the last remaining parts of the Brazilian rain forest.
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People who haven't been in the tropical rain forest often ask me what it feels like to work there.
Academic text (1990) -
The statistics on the loss of the world's tropical rain forests are staggering.
Academic text (1992) -
We're having a fête to save the rain forest.
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Costa Rica offers the ecotourist diverse rain forests, abundant biodiversity, and breathtaking scenery.
Academic text (1993) -
The scientists discovered dozens of new species in the rain forest of Papua, New Guinea.
Synonyms
383
1.0
A dense tropical forest with thick plants that are hard to walk through
103
2.3
A large, thick forest that gets a lot of rain and has many plants and animals
3
2.7
A large area of tall trees near the equator that gets heavy rain and has many plants and animals
How Rainy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a dense forest characterized by high rainfall' is directly and transparently derived from the constituents 'rain' (water falling from the sky) and 'forest' (a large area of trees); a B1 learner who knows both words can infer this compound meaning. This noun-noun compounding pattern is common in English and cross-linguistically parallel, so the MWE is immediately comprehensible despite orthographic variation (rainforest vs. rain forest).
Etymology
Rain forest comes from the simple image of a forest that gets heavy rain most of the year, so trees and plants grow very thick and green. That's why 'rain forest' means a very dense forest in warm tropical areas that gets a lot of rain.