Is there a difference between a WOOD and a FOREST?

[Backdrifter]

This comes under the "& nature" bit of the forum title.

Are the words 'wood' and 'forest' interchangeable or do they actually denote different things?

[Quizmonster]

Chambers Dictionary...wood = a collection of more or less densely growing trees; a stretch of country supporting such growth.
forest = a large uncultivated tract of land covered with trees and undergrowth.
The only apparent difference is one of size, if you consider the words in those definitions.

[Backdrifter]

Yes, I wondered if size had anything to do with it, but it's vague don't you think? I also wondered if a forest could include plantations, whereas a wood was always a naturally-occurring stretch of wooded land.

[Quizmonster]

There may be an element of that, BD. Certainly, in Britain, the agency known as the Forestry Commission has multi-thousands of acres of deliberately planted trees. On the other hand, nature programmes on TV are constantly showing us life in the tropical rainforests, which were certainly not deliberately planted! It would seem, therefore, that a forest can be either natural or man-made. I'm not so sure about a wood, though I'd imagine that some of the great country houses had woods deliberately created around them in past times.

[Sphinx_Svens]

If you look really closely, you will see a forest is made from wood

[zubi_blatta]

ya the word wood and forest are interchangeable because wood is bben obtain from fallen trees that has been processed and finished and now can be called a wood...so they are interchangeable because they mean the same thing....

[Backdrifter]

Yeah thanks guys I think we've exhausted that, er, humorous line now.