lignum vitae

Questions about lignum vitae

What does lignum vitae mean?

lignum vitae means "hard greenish-brown wood of the lignum vitae tree and other trees of the genus Guaiacum". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for lignum vitae?

Close synonyms include guaiac, guaiacum, Guaiacum officinale. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is lignum vitae a common word?

lignum vitae is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.