ACACIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does acacia mean? 

• ACACIA (noun)
  The noun ACACIA has 1 sense:

1. any of various spiny trees or shrubs of the genus Acacia

  Familiarity information: ACACIA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACACIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various spiny trees or shrubs of the genus Acacia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("acacia" is a kind of...):

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Meronyms (substance of "acacia"):

gum acacia; gum arabic (gum from an acacia tree; used as a thickener (especially in candies and pharmaceuticals))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "acacia"):

shittah; shittah tree (source of a wood mentioned frequently in the Bible; probably a species of genus Acacia)

wattle (any of various Australasian trees yielding slender poles suitable for wattle)

Acacia catechu; catechu; Jerusalem thorn (East Indian spiny tree having twice-pinnate leaves and yellow flowers followed by flat pods; source of black catechu)

Acacia farnesiana; cassie; flame tree; huisache; mimosa bush; scented wattle; sweet acacia; sweet wattle (tropical American thorny shrub or small tree; fragrant yellow flowers used in making perfumery)

Acacia xanthophloea; fever tree (African tree supposed to mark healthful regions)

Holonyms ("acacia" is a member of...):

genus Acacia (large genus of shrubs and trees and some woody vines of Central and South America, Africa, Australia and Polynesia: wattle; mimosa)

 Context examples 

With acacia seeds in hand, Leichty began to develop strategies to grow and study acacias in the lab.

(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)

It had no park, but the pleasure-grounds were tolerably extensive; and like every other place of the same degree of importance, it had its open shrubbery, and closer wood walk, a road of smooth gravel winding round a plantation, led to the front, the lawn was dotted over with timber, the house itself was under the guardianship of the fir, the mountain-ash, and the acacia, and a thick screen of them altogether, interspersed with tall Lombardy poplars, shut out the offices.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

In a new study, colleagues of Janzen’s at Penn uncovered a genetic mechanism that programs the plant in the ant-acacia relationship.

(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)

The acacia trees produce specialized structures to shelter and feed the ant colony, and the ants, in turn, defend the tree against herbivores.

(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)

Scott Poethig, a plant biologist at Penn, and Aaron Leichty of the University of California, Davis, show that as part of an age-dependent phenomenon in plant development, the acacias develop the traits necessary to feed the ant colony: hollow, swollen thorns to house them; and nectaries and nutrient-rich leaflet tips called Beltian bodies to feed them.

(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)