tree, wood, timber, lumber

[kjc0123]

What is the difference among tree, wood, timber, lumber?

[stoo_pid]

Well, in the context of your question generally speaking:

• tree is the whole thing
• wood is the material below the bark (a wood of course, is a dense growth of trees).
• timber is wood prepared for use as a building material
• lumber is wood prepared for use as a building material

[New Forester]

Wood can also mean an area, usually with a defined boundary, which is mainly trees.  Near here, for example, is a place called Pinnick Wood.  Forest is used to mean a larger, less defined wooded area (though originally it meant a hunting area with or without trees, as here in the New Forest).

 

Timber can also be the unprepared wood, still in a log or even in a tree -- but only when talking of it as a resource.  For example, you might say that a log had ten cubic feet of timber in it, or that Pinnick Wood had little good timber.

 

Lumber in this sense is mainly American.  In Britain we would usually use timber for prepared wood, although we are aware of the other word.  The word lumber in Britain more usually means something different: assorted objects of doubtful usefulness -- junk, in other words.  It's also used as a verb -- to be lumbered with something is to have an unwelcome responsibility: "I can't afford to get a better car, so I reckon I'm lumbered with this heap of junk".

[Octavius]

ummm...

tree and wood go after words, as in Becontree and Borehamwood, whereas timber and lumber go before as in timberland and lumberjack.

[Clanad]

In the US there is somewhat different useage of timber...

One often says they are going to the timber for the afternoon, meaning visiting the forest. In the context of building material, timber often refers to large pieces of building material, such as the timbers that support the roof structure.

Forest,can mean a large area of of timberland, such as Sequoia National Forest...

Interestingly enough, in line with New Forester's choice, lumbering can also be used to describe the way something, usually inanimate, moves, ie, "The truck lumbered up the mountain side"...

Octavius has an interesting point, but one that fits European useage better than US...

[ezapf]

Poor kjc is going to be so confused. The English language is not logical or straight-forward. It is my only language and I am still learning it. Keep asking questions, kjc. Your questions make us all think.